Penal Reform and Gender ■ ■ ■ Does the system of non-custodial sanctions work well for women? Are they proportionately represented in such sanctions? 29 Does the prison population include substantial numbers of people with a background of experiencing gender-based violence? Would they be better dealt with in the health or welfare system? Does the record-keeping of the administration enable conclusions to be drawn about the treatment of different groups? Are all statistics broken down to show sex and age? Is this data made available to the public, the media and parliament so that groups concerned with women, LGBT people and children can assess the treatment these groups are accorded? 4.2 Ensure oversight and complaints mechanisms address gender Introducing external monitoring and control is a key strategy for raising the standards in prisons and ensuring better treatment of prisoners. A competent body independent of the prison administration should be able to inspect the conditions of imprisonment, assess whether there is ill-treatment and report to a government entity that has the power to act on their findings. Effective complaints machinery is also a basic requirement. These mechanisms are essential because prisons are a closed world, holding some of the most vulnerable people in any society, and those who work in prisons have significant power over prisoners. Oversight and complaints mechanisms fail to fulfil their role, however, if they are not sensitive to gender and discrimination and fail to identify and report on GBV. Effective monitoring Introducing a national monitoring or inspection system can: ■ Help protect prisoners from abuse and ill-treatment, including gender-based violence. Box 1 ■ ■ ■ Promote a culture of respect where all prisoners, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation or origin, are treated with dignity. Create a climate where abuses such as GBV are exposed and not shrouded in a culture of impunity. Help protect men and women prison staff from false accusations through independent evaluations of complaints against them. Inspection mechanisms can take different forms: ■ Specially appointed judges ■ Civil society organisations ■ Specially appointed prison inspectors ■ Human rights commissions ■ International monitoring bodies Not all inspection mechanisms are effective and not all pay appropriate attention to gender issues. Outsiders visiting prisons can easily be kept away from what the prison officials do not want them to see, especially matters relating to GBV, to which prison officials often close their eyes. Prisoners who have been victims of violence can be punished for speaking to inspectors. Compliant prisoners may be chosen to meet the inspectors and give them a rosy view. Civil society organisations, dependent on government support and funding, may not carry out the task adequately because of fears that their funding and recognition will be endangered if they speak out frankly about what they find, or because they lack the training or expertise needed to uncover sensitive issues such as rape. ! ■ ■ ■ To ensure effective inspection procedures that take gender into account: Those undertaking an inspection must be able to communicate with and gain the confidence of all prisoners. Inspection teams should, therefore, include men and women. Inspectors must have unrestricted access to all parts of the prison at all times so that no prisoners can be kept out of sight. Inspectors must have the right to carry out unannounced visits and be immediately admitted. External review of women’s imprisonment in Australia The Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland, Australia, carried out a review of women’s imprisonment to establish how far the Department of Corrective Services met the requirement to provide corrective services ’through the humane containment, supervision and rehabilitation of offenders’ without discrimination. The Commission concluded that: ■ Security classification instruments and procedures could result in women being over-classified. ■ The best interests of children are not considered, either in sentencing, or in prison. ■ Mental health issues are often ignored. ■ Women from indigenous groups face particular discrimination. The report made a number of recommendations including better training for staff on non-discrimination and establishing an independent inspectorate reporting to Parliament.30 This process demonstrates the advantages of having an independent body – with a concern for combating discrimination – review the penal system. A comparable review was carried out in England and Wales by a Member of Parliament. It recommended women’s centres as an alternative to custody, and small local custodial units housing 20-30 women to gradually replace the system of women’s prisons.31 Such external reviews will often come up with more radical recommendations for change than an internal review process. 5