Gender and SSR Toolkit Where children do live in prison with their mother, special provisions must be in place to ensure that the child’s rights are promoted and protected whilst they are in prison, and throughout any separation period from their mother that may follow: ■ ■ ■ ■ Child welfare, rather than prison authorities, should have primary responsibility for making decisions regarding children in prison. Arrangements need to be made that minimise the restrictive nature of imprisonment for children, promote bonding between mother and child, and give children access to as many normal experiences as possible. Mechanisms must be in place to protect children in prisons from all forms of physical or mental violence, including sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment. The situation in the countries of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, where children are kept in a nursery, looked after by professional carers and visited periodically for a number of hours by their mothers, is less desirable than the arrangements in other countries where children and mothers live together in special units. Box 8 In some countries, mothers have their children removed and put into the care of the state when they go to prison. On release, they need to re-establish a stable home to regain care of their children. One British study found that: ‘Half the mothers nearing release were not expecting to return to their previous accommodation, almost 4 out of 10 had lost their homes and there was an increase in the number expecting to be homeless.’62 Release of such prisoners requires specific planning and support, with emphasis on secure housing and support for family reunification. Civil society groups can make a contribution by assisting with social reintegration – e.g. by providing halfway houses and refuges for women. 4.8 Ensure appropriate and skilled prison staff Training In many countries, the training of prison staff is grossly inadequate for the tasks they are required to perform. Even in countries where it exists, staff training rarely addresses the specific problems and needs of women Equal opportunities in employment in England and Wales The Prison Service in England and Wales has a range of policies and structures designed to ensure equal opportunities in employment. For example: ■ ■ ■ The Prison Service’s Equal Opportunities Policy says that prison officers who have undergone gender reassignment and been accepted by the Prison Service in their acquired gender may carry out the normal physical searching duties of an officer of that sex.64 GALIPS is the Prison Service Staff Support Network. It supports all staff and managers, regardless of their sexual orientation, and advises on LGBT issues. Membership of GALIPS is free and is open to all staff with an interest in LGBT issues, those seeking help and advice and anyone wishing to support the network, whether or not they identify as LGBT. In 2007, an agreement was signed between the Prison Service of England and Wales and the Equal Opportunities Commission on an Action Plan to deal effectively with sexual harassment in the Prison Service. The agreement is the outcome of a process that began in 2005 when the Equal Opportunities Commission decided it would carry out an investigation into the ‘frequency and persistence of sexual harassment against women and men’ working for the Prison Service. The agreement commits the Prison Service to work: - To determine the incidence of sexual harassment of staff within the Prison Service. - To create a culture in which sexual harassment is unacceptable and in which the standards of behaviour required are readily understood by all staff. - To ensure that sexual harassment is tackled and dealt with effectively and consistently, throughout the Prison Service. - To ensure that managers fully understand their duty to prevent sexual harassment and put this into practice on a day-to-day basis. - To make it easy for employees to complain of harassment and to support complainants during and after their complaints procedures. - To ensure that complainants have confidence in the complaints procedures and that complaints will be dealt with promptly, transparently and appropriately. - To take steps to implement systems which will ensure recording and monitoring of all informal and formal complaints of sexual harassment. - To deal with the perpetrators of harassment appropriately. Specific actions that the Prison Service will undertake include: - A review and analysis of formal complaints of sexual harassment over a 12-month period to identity the characteristics of harassment complaints, the consistency of approach in dealing with complaints and the lessons learned. - A review and written analysis of 10 randomly chosen complete complaint files for each of the two years. - A survey of male and female staff and focus groups of staff to ascertain: the incidence of sexual harassment; the nature and extent of sexual harassment experienced or observed; whether staff feel free to complain and, if not, why not and whether they feel confident in the complaints procedure and, if not why not; and the most effective measures that can be taken to prevent such harassment.65 12