The Church in Wales

News Release August 3, 2009  

Welsh women prisoners “neglected” in English jails – Archbishop of Wales 
NB: The Archbishop is available for interviews on Tuesday, August 4, at 10am.  
Please contact Anna Morrell (details at end) to arrange. 

Welsh women convicted of crimes face isolation and neglect because they are forced to serve out their time in England, hundreds of miles away from their family and friends, the Archbishop of Wales warns.

With no prison in Wales able to accommodate women, all Welsh prisoners must go to English prisons, forcing their families to make difficult and expensive journeys for the short visit times and putting them out of touch with Welsh news, said Dr Barry Morgan.

He was speaking following a pastoral visit to HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire, which takes in women for most of Wales, south of Aberystwyth. About 100 women there  – a third of the prison’s population – are Welsh. Primarily a remand unit, most women stay at Eastwood for about seven weeks, moving even further away to prisons in Derby or Surrey, to serve longer sentences.

Dr Morgan said, “It seems very strange that I have to go across the border, and out of the Province of Wales, in order to visit women prisoners from Wales. I met women from Dolgellau, Brecon, Llanelli, Porth,  Pontypridd, Cardiff and Newport and they made the same plea – can we have a jail for women in Wales?“

Their distress at being in prison is heightened far more than it is for men because in England they feel like strangers. While conditions at Eastwood Park are impressive, with good support, caring staff and a very positive atmosphere, prison is still a frightening place for most women, particularly the younger ones who are still in their teens. Their biggest worry is that their families and friends won’t visit or can’t visit, because they are too far away. They also feel cut off from Wales because English prisons do not show Welsh television channels or have Welsh newspapers so they have no way of keeping up with things happening in Wales. They feel isolated and neglected.

An area of concern at Eastwood Park is the levels of self-harm among the population. It is believed that a percentage of these incidents could be accredited to the vulnerability, isolation and anxiety felt by prisoners who are a long way from their homes, friends and family.  Women prisoners tend to be much more vulnerable anyway than men and their prisons are very different. The majority – about 80% -  arrive with problems of substance misuse, either drugs or alcohol or both, and a high proportion will have had contact with mental health services. Many will have got caught up in crime after years of being abused themselves. Research shows that families are much more likely to fall apart when a mother, rather than a father, is in prison – the main concern of 70% of men leaving prison is to find a job, whereas for 70% of women, it is to find somewhere to live. Many  partners don’t stand by them. Up to a dozen women also have babies in prison and look after them there.“It is vital that these women are given every chance possible to keep their lives together while they are in prison so that they have support and stability when they are released and a chance to break out of the cycle of crime.

Whilst Eastwood Park is one of the most impressive prisons I have visited, we need provision for women offenders in Wales, in their own country. Locking them up far from home where, even with the best of care, they feel abandoned, worthless and forgotten  will only condemn some of the most deprived people in society to a  life spent constantly in and out of trouble.”Dr Morgan was invited to HMP Eastwood Park by the prison chaplain, Revd Judith Phillips. During a tour of the prison, he spent time with a group of prisoners from Wales who brought up their concerns about serving their sentences out of Wales.

At the end of the meeting, they asked him to bless them, which he did, after a short prayer.Rev Judith Phillips said she invited the Archbishop because she feels women in prison are invisible and often forgotten. The church, she said, had a duty to care for them. She said, “Women’s prisons tend to be invisible, even within the prison service, and the more people who know about them the better. The needs of Welsh women in prison are similarly invisible. The Archbishop’s visit was seen by the women as a sign that they had not been forgotten despite being away from home. It gave him an opportunity to meet staff, so that the Prison Service can be reminded of the existence and needs of Welsh women and that the Church recognises a pastoral responsibility to them.

The women were very grateful for having met him; one asked me specially the previous week because she’d heard that he was coming and wanted to be there.  The thing that will stay with me, that said most about them and about him, was that they asked him to bless them and were anxious that he should lay hands on them.

Dr Morgan was welcomed by the deputy governor Paul Stickler and met the chair of the Independent Monitoring Board, Mary Campbell Hill. He visited the chapel and listened to a group of prison musicians taking part in an initiative called Changing Tunes. Run by volunteers who visit the prison once a week, Changing Tunes uses music to challenge attitudes, thinking and behaviour. 

A Day in the Life of a Prison Chaplain

By Rev Judith Phillips, full-time chaplain at HMP Eastwood Park

Into the office at 7.45am, switch on the computer and get all the lists for the day, including yesterday’s new arrivals.   Morning Prayer in chapel, against a background of noise from the Medication queue in the corridor, and then off to the morning operational meeting, for what happened yesterday and last night, plus what’s on today. Muslim chaplain arrives, so off we go to the kitchen to discuss early preparations for Ramadan with Head of Catering.  Then it’s off to see some of the newcomers – we visit all new inmates within 24 hours of their arrival - and hear their usual range of concerns: a prisoner in HMP Parc, in Wales, needs to know his sister is here; worries about separation from very new baby; anxiety about getting Social Services to bring children from Treorchy on visits.  One woman is in a state of shock at being here at all.  She couldn’t get hold of her mother or anyone else to tell them last night and must feel as though she’s fallen off the face of the earth.Back in the office, activate unofficial HMPS communications network, ie ring the chaplaincy at HMP Parc and pass on message, contact Mother and Baby Unit and Family Liaison.    Switchboard puts a distressed woman through to chaplaincy. She is devastated that her grand-daughter is in prison and doesn’t know who else she can talk to. I listen, offer practical advice about visits and money.  

Prisoner drops in to ask about lighting a candle next week on the anniversary of her mother’s death, and takes a Bible.   Meanwhile, the dog handler and dog arrive, to check we’ve concealed nothing worse than biscuits in the office. Another prisoner drops in – can we get a message to her partner in Dartmoor?  Depends what it is, I say.  Can you tell him I love him?  I suggest she write to him as even a short note from her would mean much more than a message just passed on by me.At the chapel a group of prisoners is making music with Changing Tunes.  Prisoners in general find it hard to believe that they can take positive steps to change their lives. In music making the women discover a lot of “self” skills and values, such as discipline, confidence, worth and esteem.  They perform concerts for their friends and occasionally provide music for Sunday services. And some write their own songs.  Changing Tunes makes a real difference to those it works with. It has helped many stop  self harming, too,  because music gives them other ways of dealing with their emotions.Peace descends – it’s the lunchtime lockup.  A colleague goes to a meeting to discuss support for one of our many self-harmers.  I bring a prisoner and couple of friends to chapel after a security meeting for a service, as she is unable to get to her cousin’s funeral.  Later, I have a  request for a baptism.  My colleague is now on the phone to RSPCA passing on worries about who is feeding cat, having earlier had to tell a prisoner that her father had died. It is usually the chaplains who are called on to break any bad news to a prisoner.

All the time, we deal with women just into prison, who have to keep the emotional, financial and practical parts of their lives going.  So there are lots of crises, lots of immediate needs.  To some this is relatively normal, but to others it’s a complete disruption of everything familiar.  And, of course, by no means all will end up with a prison sentence or even be found guilty, but will still have been in prison long enough to lose jobs, housing and custody of children.   Some find space to satisfy spiritual needs; chapel is a safe place, chaplains familiar faces, so they bring things to us they wouldn’t know what to do with, like griefs and guilts blocked out by drug use, long hidden bereavement issues, the beginnings of faith.  For a desperate few their lives are so disordered that their only security is the prison routine and the only reliable adults are prison staff.  It’s a huge privilege being able to help, being allowed into people’s lives, being trusted, but it takes its toll emotionally.

For interviews with Welsh women who have served sentences in English prisons, contact Rev Richard Taylor, Director of Victory Outreach UK, on 0845 4092449 or 07540 755704.

For more information, please contact:
Anna Morrell
Archbishop's Media Officer / Swyddog y Cyfryngau i'r Archesgob
Tel: 02920 348208; mobile: 07 91 91 587 94
39 Cathedral Rd, Cardiff / 39 Heol y Gadeirlan, Caerdydd
CF11 9XF
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk
http://www.eglwysyngnghymru.org.uk <<Eastwood Prison 054.jpg>> Anna Morrell

Archbishop's Media Officer / Swyddog y Cyfryngau i'r Archesgob
Tel: 02920 348208; mobile: 07 91 91 587 94
39 Cathedral Rd, Cardiff / 39 Heol y Gadeirlan, Caerdydd
CF11 9XF
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk
http://www.eglwysyngnghymru.org.uk