STARK DISPARITIES And nowhere is this gender disparity more stark than in criminal justice . Drug offences were one of the leading causes of incarceration for women in the region , particularly women from poor households . Children of parents deprived of liberty for drugs offences were also an ‘ invisible population ’ in both the drugs and children ’ s rights agendas , she added .
In Uruguay , in a prison population of almost 16,000 people , 14,700 were men and 3,300 women , said Mariana Silva of Uruguay ’ s National Drug Secretariat . However , when it came to drugs offences , 58 per cent of those jailed were women . In Europe , meanwhile , women accounted for 5 per cent of the prison population ,
Drug use and its consequences are often treated as if they are ‘ gender neutral ’ – despite there being a range of differences in risk factors , behaviour and more .
LINDA MONTANARI
said Montanari . ‘ They don ’ t commit other crimes as much as men , and they tend not to commit violent crimes . But the link with drugs is very important . The proportion of women in Europe for drug law offences is maybe not as high as in Latin America , but when we look at those who have problems with drugs and are in prison for acquisitive crimes the percentage becomes huge .’
But it ’ s not just the proportion of women jailed for drugs offences , it ’ s how they ’ re treated while they ’ re imprisoned – and anyone thinking these kind of disparities don ’ t apply to the UK would be wrong . According to an HM Inspectorate of Prisons report published in February , the lack of care to meet women ’ s basic needs is causing such distress that ‘ they resort to harming themselves ’.
Uruguay is now attempting to address some of these issues in its own criminal justice system , and last year launched its ‘ national plan on problematic drug use for persons deprived of liberty ’ – one of the strategic objectives of which was to ‘ incorporate a gender and diversity perspective ’ and recognise that ‘ women and other vulnerable groups may have different needs that must be specifically addressed .’
Time to care
The rate of self-harm in women ’ s prisons in the UK has ‘ rocketed ’ in recent years , and is now more than eight times higher than in male prisons , says HM Inspectorate of Prisons ’ Time to care : what helps women cope in prison report . There were also ‘ astonishing gaps in basic decency ’, including women being given ill-fitting prison-issue men ’ s clothes while some even ‘ could not get enough underwear ’. Add ‘ an overreliance on using physical force to manage women in acute and obvious crisis ’, and it adds up to a very grim picture .
Children and families also faced ‘ long , expensive journeys for short , inflexible visit sessions ’, the report continued , with the range of support ‘ far more limited than that in some men ’ s prisons , despite there being a higher level of need ’. Astonishingly , around a third of women received no face-toface visits at all . Going to prison ‘ can for some women , give them enough time to lose what they had on the outside ’, it concluded . ‘ But too little time to build new strengths or develop better coping skills , such as recovering from drug use or improving their wellbeing ’.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons report at https :// hmiprisons . justiceinspectorates . gov . uk / hmipris _ reports / time-to-carewhat-helps-women-cope-in-prison /
sured gaps were narrowed as well as avoid stigmatisation and discrimination .
Europe had much to learn from Latin America and the Caribbean , said Goosdeel – unfortunately including around the increase in drug-related violence , something they ’ d ‘ faced for many more years than us ’. This also meant a growing risk that ‘ all drug policy in Europe could shift towards only repression and the war on drugs and war on people using drugs ’, he said , something that would ‘ again be at the expense of vulnerable groups .’ In many cases the response of the state could increase vulnerability instead of reducing it , he warned .
It was important to guard against these shifts , he said , and this year would see an evaluation of the current European strategy on drugs . EUDA was looking for ‘ concrete proposals ’, he
SOCIAL PENALTIES More widely , barriers to accessing drug treatment for women in Uruguay included ‘ unsafe places ’ and a lack of spaces for children , said Silva . This was despite much higher consumption among women of tranquilisers and other medic ally prescribed drugs . Women tended to seek help for others and not themselves , she added , the result of ‘ greater social penalties for the same behaviour ’. Complex problems needed complex responses , she said , including raising public awareness of the rights of drug users , and training medical staff to avoid moralising and prejudiced approaches . Drug policies needed to have a ‘ comprehensive and balanced approach ’ with a ‘ cross-cutting human rights and gender per spective ’, she stressed . Incorpor ating gender into its drug policies would allow Uruguay to make inequalities ‘ visible ’, she said , and build targeted responses that ensaid . ‘ If we do as the European Parliament suggests and just present statistics when we can with detail on sex and gender then I ’ m afraid it ’ s partly useless . We can ’ t consider that the job is done just by splitting the data . It ’ s not enough .’
What was needed was information that could allow ‘ punchy recommendations ’ to be made to member states , he said . Drugs were changing , which was bringing new problems , while ‘ the stigma on women – especially women who are pregnant or who have children – is so huge that they do not feel they ’ ll be helped . Some are afraid that social services will take their children , so what are the concrete things that we can do together ? After 30 years of discussion , we know what the priorities are . So how can we concretely provide help ?’ DDN
Andrew Milligan / Alamy
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