Females: Alternatives to Prison

Mr. Jim Cunningham
To ask the Minister for Women what recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on alternatives to imprisonment for women.

Barbara Follett
[holding answer 19 November 2007]: I have had many discussions with ministerial colleagues on this subject. On 6 December 2007, the Government published its response to Baroness Corston's Review, which is available at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/gov-resp-corston-review.htm.

In our response, we agreed to promote the effective use of community orders as an alternative to custody. They will emphasise a demanding regime of contact hours, and a mixture of punitive and rehabilitative requirements, including a more extensive use of curfews. In addition, in our response to Baroness Corston’s Review, we made a commitment to set up projects, which will report next April, to look at alternatives to custody and review the future of the women's prison estate.