NWJC calls on government to create a new Women’s Justice Board

With a prison and probation system in crisis, deepening poverty and stark health inequalities, we are calling on the new UK Government to create a Women’s Justice Board.

For too long the incredible expertise of the women’s voluntary sector has largely been ignored, and proposed solutions and delivery plans have been developed in a vacuum. The NWJC believes now is the time to adopt a fundamentally and radically different approach, by centring the role of specialist organisations and women with lived experience alongside academics and statutory agencies and creating a Women’s Justice Board.

What would a Women’s Justice Board do?
The Women’s Justice Board would have responsibility for coordinating a cross-government focus on women and girls in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system. Centring these women and girls in all policies and approaches could achieve a drastic reduction in the number of women in prison, address reoffending and high rates of remand and recall, and prevent the criminalisation of women and girls.

Central to this approach is sustainable investment in women’s centres and specialist community-based support services to enable them to work in collaboration with well-functioning statutory services.

The urgent need for sustainable funding
Any plans for women’ justice will only be successful with women’s justice organisations at their heart, but without urgent, significant and long-term investment, there is a danger that many of these organisations may not survive.

As the new UK Government starts to address the crisis besieging our prison system, by introducing emergency measures like the early release scheme – to alleviate pressure on prison places – and the Probation Reset – to reduce demands on Probation – women’s centres and specialist organisations will be needed more than ever before. But without additional funding, they will not be able to meet the demand for support and well-meaning reforms will be doomed to fail.

Through its spending review and strategic approach, the NWJC calls on the government to recognise the value that properly funded women’s specialist, holistic, services represent and commit to making funding more accessible and sustainable as a priority.