Report: Since the Corston Report of 2007, there has been a move to develop and grow high quality, gender specific support projects, for female offenders in non-custodial settings. In the form of a report critically evaluate some of the initiatives available.

The Corston Report 2007

The Corston Report was published in 2007 and was conducted by Baroness Jean Corston, the aim of the report was to investigate and outline recommendations to improve services for vulnerable women in the criminal justice system.  The need for a public inquiry was highlighted following the deaths of six women at HMP Styal over the duration of thirteen months; these tragic events raised questions over the vulnerabilities faced by many of Britains women prisoners and thus questioned whether the mainstream prison system was a suitable and appropriate form of punishment for those considered to be at risk (Corston, 2007).  In the report she found that many of the women prisoners suffered from serious mental health problems as well as drug and alcohol addictions and that for these vulnerable women, short imprisonment sentences for minor offences had a detrimental effec…(short extract)