16 June 2005
Prison systems around the world are failing female offenders and new ideas are needed to help reintegrate women into society and stem the number returning to jail, a Monash University academic says.
Dr Rosemary Sheehan, a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Monash, says the number of women serving prison sentences has increased significantly in recent years, a trend that is being seen around the world.
To help address the issue of women in prisons, Dr Sheehan has convened the international conference "What works with women offenders: a cross-national dialogue about effective responses to female offenders"; it will be held at the Monash Prato Centre in Italy next week.
The conference is aimed at examining the health and mental health of female prisoners, addiction, women offenders as parents, government responses to women offenders, rehabilitation and effective intervention approaches.
In June 2004 there were 1672 female prisoners in Australia, up 102 per cent from 830 in June 1994. During the same period the number of men in prison increased 40 per cent from 16,114 in June 1994 to 22,499 men in 2004.
About half of all women in prison in June 2004 were repeat offenders, compared with 58 per cent of men in prison.
Dr Sheehan says the women's prison system, which is based on the men's model, does not acknowledge the differences between men and women.
"About 70 per cent of women in prison in Victoria have dependent children and the children rate poorly in terms of stability and continuity of care while their mother is in prison.
"There are no formal plans to look after these children and that impacts heavily on the mothers. Women are also context dependent, which means they need relationships to flourish, the men's prison system model doesn't take this into account," she says.
Dr Rosemary Sheehan is available for interview. For more information contact Penny Fannin in the Media Communications Office on +61 3 9905 5828 or 0417 125 700.
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