! ■ ■ ■ ■ Penal Reform and Gender Tips The media are particularly influential in shaping attitudes to crime and punishment. Good media coverage of the use of prisons for women and the problems involved can be effective in bringing about change. European Union and Council of Europe antidiscrimination laws have not been widely used to improve the situation of women in prison, but it has that potential. The CPT is a unique European resource covering 47 countries that has paid detailed attention to women in prison and to gender violence. Civil society groups might work to ensure that its reports are well known and its recommendations to governments are implemented. Donors supporting penal reform in other countries can work to ensure that gender issues are addressed. 6 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Key recommendations Assessment and information collection: Analyse the penal system to ensure its impact is not discriminatory and that it deals fairly and equally with all those it affects, including personnel and the families of prisoners. The official data collection of the penal system should provide information broken down by sex, use of pre-trial detention and sentencing level and length, and ensure that data on the incidence of violence is available and shows the level of gender-based violence. Oversight and monitoring: Ensure that systems of inspection monitor gender issues, and that the reports of the inspectors are published and receive a government response. Inspectors must be independent of the prison administration and have access at all times to all places of detention. Inspection teams should consist of both men and women, and have access to medical expertise. Complaints mechanisms: Put in place in all prisons credible complaints systems, so that incidents of gender-based violence can be reported without the complainant being victimised. 7. 8. 9. Human dignity: Ensure respect for human dignity is a high priority in the management of prisons and in the procedural rules. Clear and unambiguous rules should state that male staff should never search women prisoners, nor be permitted in the area where women dress and take showers. Prison procedures, in particular as regards strip-searching and internal searches, should be based on actual requirements as regards male and female prisoners. Gender-based violence: Put in place mechanisms to protect all prisoners from gender-based violence at the hands of prison staff or other prisoners. Ensure that complaints and oversight mechanisms facilitate reporting of gender-based violence, and ensure that such abuses are punished and the victim supported. Health care: Strive for a high quality of prison health care linked to the public health system, addressing the particular health needs of male and female prisoners. Pregnant women and mothers: Imprison pregnant women and mothers with young children only when absolutely necessary. Women giving birth in outside hospitals should never be shackled or handcuffed and should receive appropriate care. Where children are held in prison with their mothers, the environment in which the children are kept should as far as possible replicate life in the outside community. 10. Recruitment and training of prison staff: Reform the recruitment and training of prison staff, to ensure proper initial and in-service training. Protecting prisoners from sexual violence and addressing the different needs of male and female prisoners should be core elements of prison staff training. Ensure equal opportunities for female and LGBT prison staff. 11. Civil society: Open up prisons to the involvement of civil society, including those groups concerned with women and LGBT prisoners. This is an important way of preventing abuse and ensuring that women, children and other vulnerable groups have access to the specialist services they need, in prison and on release. 12. Support for penal reform: Build public support for penal reform, working with parliament, civil society and the media. Appropriate security and activities: Ensure that women prisoners are not subject to a higher degree of security than is warranted by the level of danger they present. Educational and vocational activities in prisons should be appropriate to equip men and women for self-reliance when they leave prison. Family contact: Put family contact at the centre of the prison’s activities, as a route to humanising the prison regime and holding families together. Family contact should never be withheld or reduced as part of the disciplinary system. Visits that do not permit personal contact should only be imposed when there is clear evidence of a security risk. 17