Penal Reform and Gender and other vulnerable groups, or the differences in men’s and women’s prisons. Training and regular staff development is essential if prison staff are to be able to carry out their tasks in a manner that responds to gender differences. Training must make staff more sensitive to the vulnerability of men and women prisoners to abuse, as well as to policies and procedures for preventing and responding to abuse. See Tool on Gender Training for Security Sector Personnel Recruitment Recruitment policies should take into account the fact that prison work is much more than being a security guard. Prison staff require various skills to provide human services, and prison work has to be carried out within an ethical framework that complies with international human rights standards. The recruitment process must eliminate unsuitable candidates whose profiles suggest they are likely to resort to violence or to abuse their power over others. Job descriptions, recruitment procedures and criteria for advancement must reflect the human service requirements of a prison officer’s role. Prison standards require that women prisoners be attended and supervised only by female officers. Women are placed at particular risk of sexual and physical abuse when male staff are employed in inappropriate capacities in women’s prisons. It is thus essential that prison staff recruitment programmes foresee the hiring of a sufficient number of women. This may require special measures such as targeted outreach campaigns in the media, schools and communities; family-friendly employment policies; and special provision to ensure the retention and advancement of female staff. See Tool on Police Reform and s Gender for comparable strategie to recruit female police officers Equal treatment of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender staff Whilst women have worked in women’s prisons for many years, the employment of women in men’s prisons is a more recent development. In countries where women work in men’s prisons, they have faced discrimination and harassment from their male colleagues, as have LGBT staff.63 Box 9 4.9 Engage civil society organisations An important way of ensuring that gender issues are properly addressed in prisons is through increasing the involvement of civil society organisations, which can have extensive experience and expertise in gender issues. Civil society organisations can become involved in: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Providing services to prisoners, such as support to women needing counselling or other help to recover from abuse and addictions, counselling for those with HIV/AIDS, programmes for perpetrators of violence, training for women so that they can find employment on release, friendship and support to children with no families, as well as bringing aid such as medicines to women, children and other vulnerable prisoners. Human rights work to draw attention to gender issues in penal systems, by participating in providing alternative reports to bodies such as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the UN Committee Against Torture and to the relevant regional mechanisms, and using the law where there are flagrant breaches. Capacity-building of penal system staff as well as human rights, anti-discrimination and penal reform groups, to inform and assist them to incorporate a gender perspective into their work. Raising awareness of the public, parliamentarians and oversight bodies of the need for policy changes and specific measures to address discrimination and poor treatment in prisons. Auditing the penal system for gender awareness and advising on appropriate policy responses. See Tool on Civil Society Oversight of the Security Sector and Gender 4.10 Build public support for penal reform Public support for penal reform is not easily obtained. Reforms that aim to reduce the number of prisoners or improve prison conditions can be hard to introduce. All those involved in penal reform – prison administrators, politicians, media and civil society groups – need to work continuously to keep the public involved in a debate about imprisonment and its use. Regular information, reports and statistics need to be produced and publicised. Women’s civil society in Yemen In Yemen, the Women’s National Committee promotes dialogue with decision makers to ensure justice for women. Until recently, women prisoners who had completed their sentence were forbidden to leave prison unless a male guardian collected them. The Women’s National Committee put pressure on the Ministry of Interior and got this unfair rule changed. The Yemeni Women’s Union, supported by Oxfam in five districts, has 36 volunteer lawyers who provide free legal support to poor women in prisons, courts and police stations. As a result of their legal assistance, 450 female prisoners were released in 2004 and 2005.66 13