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Demanding a new agenda: what must be done to stop women dying in prison?

Here we are again. And more angry. And more sickened. At 18 years old Annelise Sanderson is dead. Found in a prison cell in the leafy suburb of Cheshire on 22nd December 2020. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate this latest death in custody.

 

We have spent so much time over the last two decades in this moment, of discussion and analysis asking ourselves ‘what is to be done?’ This time of year marks the anniversaries of Sarah Campbell, also just 18 years old, when she was found dead in a prison cell in Styal on 18th January 2003 and Sarah Reed who died on 11 January 2016 while on remand at Holloway women’s prison, London. Many of us, academics, campaigners, policy makers, practitioners, journalists, and families will be moved once again to ask ‘what must now be done to stop women dying in prison?’

 

The reforms we have seen, like the discussion underpinning them, is with good intention. If we define women in prison as ‘vulnerable’ it might accentuate their humanity, their victimhood and lead to better treatment. If we train prison staff and call these spaces of punishment ‘trauma informed’ they will be able to better respond to the pain and harms women continue to experience in prison. If we call for ‘radical reforms’, such as the funding of women’s centres, their existence will stop the deaths and support decarceration. Yet these assumptions are flawed and these strategies have failed. The discussion, the analysis, the reforms, are failing women at the same rate that the wider institutions of the state fail to protect, care for and keep girls and women safe.

 

It is clear that overtime the (liberal) feminist reformist agenda has failed women because of a lack of fundamental examination and challenge regarding the contexts within which women are criminalised and punished. The reproduction of responsibilising narratives, found in official discourse, rehearsed in parts of Baroness Corston’s review in 2007, and present in too much of the debate since the report’s publication, places the focus on women and their choice and opportunities to ‘turn their lives around’. Focusing on addressing women’s vulnerabilities has led to minimal critique and change in the system - rather than exposing the institutional failures that leave women unprotected and unsupported, and instead result in their criminalisation and punishment.

 

There is a need therefore to shift our analysis, move the lens, and ask new questions. How do processes of state power serve to criminalise some women? Why is there a continued reliance on punitive and responsibilising strategies (including in the culture of some women’s centres) to manage inequalities? In what ways do wider social stereotypes characterised by misogyny, class stigma and racism permeate even the reformist criminal justice responses to women?

 

The findings from a recent research project, Stories of Injustice, a collaborative research process focussed on the criminalisation and punishment of women convicted under joint enterprise laws demonstrates the need for a new set of guiding principles. This work, informed by the values of critical social research, prioritised the significance of intervention, power, positionality, dialogue and reflection in the research process.

 

A feminist analysis at its core must be a critical analysis of systems of power, how they shape the lives of girls and women and ultimately the harms they support and generate. Our  analysis in Stories of Injustice centres the process of criminalisation, demonstrating how decisions to charge by the police, prosecution strategies at criminal trial and Judge’s sentencing remarks reinforce and reproduce patriarchy, class stigma and racism. The women convicted under JE and their families reveal how their pain and harm goes unreported and unprosecuted, invisible, silenced and censored. While their character is scrutinised, made hyper-visible in a space that seeks to blame and punish.

 

In this respect then it is almost impossible for us to NOT conclude that the rule of law has failed women. If or how we can fix these longstanding failures by reforming this very same system is the fundamental question.

 

We write this blog demanding an urgent shift in the analysis, discussion and action, in tribute to Annelise Sanderson, Sarah Campbell and Sarah Reed. To the 57 people who have died in women’s prison in the last five years. Also in recognition of the 3130 women surviving prison under the COVID-19 pandemic, many we know are wrongfully criminalised and punished. The humanity of Annelise, Sarah and Sarah shines through the tributes paid to them by those who knew them. It is our humanity that is now in question.

Dr Kathryn Chadwick is a principal lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Dr Becky Clarke is a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.