Should Shorter Prison Sentences for Women Be Scrapped? | Good Morning Britain

let's start with you make Nevel on the face of it equality should be a quality why should men and women be treated any differently yeah tend to agree when I was in the police yeah it was not unusual to see people with a hundred previous convictions and it's a case of what point just say enough is enough when do you say should you go to you know you should go to jail because you've been given this order this order this and you failed to comply and also pragmatism comes to playing all this when I was a DSR a dia Raider drugs house you rates and whether it's handling stolen goods the man and woman are both involved there's two kids there do you Nick the woman no because social services won't come out the blog and even the most hardened villain will take the rap and and so the woman gets away with it basically but the bloke takes the rap so pragmatism comes into play and I just think if it we're going to have equal rights in everything then you can't keep making these differentiations because where is it was it stuck right sean barie I mean equality is equality unless apparently it means going to prison in which case you want to be given different treatment better treatment to men so the differences between men and women in terms of offending behavior are actually incredibly stark only about 8% of women commit any kind of violent offense most women are being sentenced for things like persistent shoplifting evading TV licences fraud often drugs offenses often drugs offenses to support someone else's habit as well and these are not sentences these are not crimes that make them a danger to crime and sending people to prison men go to prison for the same thing especially sending sending women to prison the impacts of doing that particularly for short sentences can do far more harm why is the impact or more in any worse than the impact on men women often have caring responsibilities so in that in the process of doing that those children are maybe going into care that woman's maybe losing her home the ripple effects into society are far more serious now this is an evidence-based view and it's a cross-party okay just be saying just to establish we're talking about less than 5% of the total prison population is women and to me and to many people one of the most important things will be if you imprison someone for less than 12 months does it stop them reoffending because if it stops them there's an argument very strong argument for it if actually it doesn't stop them and they just keep bouncing in and out so it stops and when they're in there you know that's the problem you see if you give somebody a short sentence to show you I agree TV licences shoplifting all these alternatives should be tried first but if somebody continually breaches them and doesn't comply doesn't pay the fine doesn't do the community service on they've got to be a different sentences if somebody's persistently reoffending the causes of that needs to be examined and they need to be sentenced to getting but if you help but look looking before convicting a woman and sending her to prison is that more effective than if you convict her and send her to I don't know a Women's Center you know all the evidence shows that could that let the criminal sentences and sending people to prison that's more harm than good in fact in a huge way okay much much cheaper to sentence people to get help with the prison time ready you you went to prison forty spent eleven months in prison five months under supervision this is for a GBH fnz gone to a fine defending your sister this was back in 2008 when you were 21 yes so you're a young woman you got into a fight defending your sister and you end up in prison presumably a pretty catastrophic moment in your life yeah what what do you feel about this too because obviously as we move more and more quite rightly in my opinion to full gender equality in all things yeah there will be some men watching this game well why should it be one rule for women and one rule for men if they do the same offense I mean I got sent to prison I had no previous convictions I was not known to the justice system in any shape or form I actually was studying to be a child minder and had been inspected in my house had been inspected so I had my plant I guess my life kind of figured out at that point and going that situation happening it wasn't a plan that I had I didn't go out on my waiters a lot of men find themselves in that position to where they get into a fight it's a moment of madness and they end up going to prison as well my point is not that you know you deserve didn't deserve that sentence it's whether a woman and a man should be treated differently for the same offense and I still believe that women again that Sean said but there's more to a woman going to prison like a man could go to prison and the woman would be the one that brings the children to visit the man whereas if the woman is in prison we like John said children do end up in a justice system like in social service which leads to more kids been in a system where they're actually more likely to commit I do I don't have children though right this is predicated on the belief that you know women are the primary carers right we are moving driven by the feminist movement to an age when and nothing wrong with this where men are deemed to be just as important in bringing up children as women can you have both running at the same time can you say well women of the primary care is therefore they get less for sentences but that's when it comes to child care we want men to do exactly the same as women the same considerations should apply where men are the primary carers it's just far less common and having like the all-party parliamentary group recommends like the London Assembly committee that I'm on is recommended it does make sense to have a blanket policy and build up those alternative services for women the women centers that they need which are just not there lots of people it sounds soft doesn't if you commit the crime you do the time but if it's not effective then isn't it something that we should consider an alternative to I think I agree but some people see these like you know you've got to do a hundred hours paid work and most people know these schemes are a complete joke let's toughen up the schools and make sure that people get people in when people in prison we saw they're not rehabilitated well then rehabilitate them but at some point prison has got to be the solution at the end of the line a short prison sentence that eerie ability to I mean did you have you offended since than anyone I was arrested after trying to apply for a job that I had been working so hard to get and in my depression I was arrested for I guess being in a situation I was just angry I didn't I was invited to anyone or anybody I was just didn't did you feel the prison had a beneficial or negative effect on you I think a negative effect because I came out to you know having to rebuild my life again having to show society that I am capable of actually being in an employment and actually do well with that was the consequence I don't know the circumcision your story but that was the consequence of you committing grievous bodily harm on something being convicted for it and getting a pretty tough prison cell really a pretty tough prison even to the point that I was actually I have a British passport and I was meant to be deported back to you again what did you actually do to you to your victim I beat them up badly badly I know I owned up to me I did and once deny the fact I hit them I you know now looking back you know I've spoken solicitors that she said well did your solicitor even pull up the fact that self-defense of another you know self-defense of a family member that was never brought up in my in my circumstances when you were in prison what would the other women like and and did you feel like it was full of people who actually you know shouldn't be there or actually did you think goodness me this is be honest I met a lot of women that I believe shouldn't have been there but then I also saw women being released and then been returning in less than a couple of days which for me was that why you returned in and I didn't understand because obviously I hadn't been outside prison to face what they are facing and like we are saying they are low the circumstance in regards to women getting released and have no home you know have no job they you know if of course in prison you get help support that's not there but you think instantly mr. BAE's I think if you in regards to the welfare of children yeah right as long as women as they clearly still remain are the primary carers of women right which is the vast majority actually this country of their children you know I can see an argument actually for there being a slight difference in treatment of minor of relatively say relatively the more minor scale of offending because if the children then get taken into care and I'm more like to offend as a result become a financial burden on the system at what point do you do the maths and NGO is better for the kids to be with their mum yeah and better for the system to not be spending all this money I mean has been done about ten years ago there was an independent review of this and recommendations made and we've waited until this year for the government to put it strategy together and finally put some funding in it needs more funding but it looks like we might be starting to okay I'm in an opposition where I started off thinking one thing and I sort of moved the other way two-thirds of women put into prison are mothers and more than 17,000 children separated from them said that you've got to do quite serious stuff to get put in prison these days there's very few people homely times of the committed theft not one of those people will be a 10 Bob shoplifting the first timer and there were committed repeat and repeat and repeat event I am what can we do to solve the problem that's a different question but there doesn't the gate will make same which is actually yeah theft if you go and rob people repeatedly right I've been burgled a few times it is incredibly invasive very unpleasant right and I don't think you should be spared punishment for that right there's got it's got to be a line in the sand and what you're saying is that the villains or the criminals will know or I'll never go to prison because I've got kids I can just offend a fender fender and that's not correct I think that is a that's a very valid point you

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 746,229

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic, prison, women's rights, gender equality, sexism, feminism

Id: lSomgylk9X8

Length: 9min 37sec (577 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 21 2018