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1. Scene setting
2. Women
in the criminal justice system
3. The NCW 'View Point' gambling
survey follow-up
1. Scene setting
Three women - a sixth-former, one early in
her career, and one an experienced career woman - talk about
being a woman in the 21st century.
Alex
Laskowski, Head
Girl,
Nottingham
Girls’ High School.
Members found Alex an articulate young woman who was heading
for university and a degree in international law.
She has been able to follow many ex curricula
activities as a flautist and an actress.
The values of her school inform her life.
She had great respect for her teachers who were
inspiring her and fellow students to lead fulfilling lives.
Human rights, ‘make poverty history’, stopping
violence against women and the recognition of marital rape,
social programmes to enhance women’s positions,
eradication of illiteracy are some of the subjects which
concern her and her peers.
‘There will be no true social revolution without
the liberation of women’ (a quote from the assassinated
president of Burkino Faso,
West Africa
) was Alex’s final
sentence.
Sharon
Woma’s book ‘Excellent
Women’ made her known in
Nottingham
.
She said NCW members past and present form part of
the fabric of life she takes for granted.
She did not excel academically and she did not have
the financial backing that had benefited Alex.
She had worked as a secretary at seventeen, becoming
a financial secretary, mortgage broker, then making
jewellery, turning £150 into £300 and winning a New
Entrepreneurs Scholarship (which was post code selected) of
£3500 at a business school teaching book-keeping and other
skills. She
was selected to go to
Boston
,
USA
for two weeks training and met business
men who had started at the kitchen table.
She comes from a disadvantaged background and
understands that young women starting a business need to
‘network’. She
wants to give back to the community and is a mentor in her
local community. Living
a dream via Domestic Bliss, a cleaning firm, she exuded
dynamism and flair.
A positive role model for young black girls in her
town.
Melanie
Leivers works for the European
Agency for the Evaluation of Medical and Veterinary
products. She
said luck and opportunity (though members realized she had
worked hard too) had been essential to her progress from
relief chemist at the Milk Marketing Board, via the
Federation of Agricultural Co-operatives in the European
Union, to her present post.
A Steiner education, which develops the individual, a
love of languages and other cultures, seeking challenges,
made her the person she is today.
Enjoy what you do, continue to grow, life is what you
make it, seize opportunities … these were her
mantra.
2. Women
in the criminal justice system
A
Chief Constable, a Chief Officer in the probation service and a Governor
in the prison service talk about their work.
Ms
Della Cannings, Chief Constable of
North Yorkshire
As Chief Constable, Della Cannings is responsible for 2,600
policemen and manages a budget of £140m.
She succeeded in getting extra funding with
which she recruited more police, upgraded the fleet of
vehicles and the IT systems.
The
police these days have to deal with a variety of tasks which
were not formerly their job.
They have to handle ID cards, terrorism, firearms,
deal with the hunting ban, all of which involve co-operating
with other forces much more than previously.
The
Sex Discrimination Act changed policing for women.
Formerly 4% of police were women, now the figure is
21%. In
1980, the Chief Constable went to a police conference in
Germany
and she was the only
woman there. Today
there are six women chief constables.
Della Cannings said that she is expected to be a role
model for women.
Ms
Jane Geraghty, Chief Officer of
East Midlands
Probation Service
In
1970 when Jane Geraghty began in the probation service her
role was to ‘advise, assist, befriend’: the role now is
to manage offenders and to assess the risk they pose.
Up to two years ago the prison and probation service
gave continuity, looking after the same person all the
way through. There
is a concern that if police forces are regionalised, local
links may be lost.
19
per cent of all offenders are women, they tend to grow
out of offending at about fifteen years of age, whereas for
boys it is nineteen.
Women’s crimes tend to be theft and handling stolen
goods but nowadays more girls are becoming criminals and
they are becoming more violent.
More young girls are victims of assault by other
young girls, there is more gang crime and crimes are often
alcohol related.
Women’s
needs which the probation service tries to address are for
education and training and how to deal with relationships,
Their needs tend to be numerous and complicated, they
use a lot more services such as debt, child abuse,
prostitution, harm to children and domestic violence.
Their reconviction rate is lower than men’s - 47per
cent re-offend within two years compared with 57 per cent of
men.
The population of women’s prisons has doubled in ten
years. There
are 41,000 women in prison, one in three of whom are from
the ethnic minorities.
66 per cent of women in prison are mothers, many are
from local authority care and have mental health needs.
The cost of keeping a prisoner is between £25,000
and £45,000 per annum.
Miss
Jenny Adams Young, Governor from the Women’s Team based at
Prison Service HQ.
Jenny Adams Young spoke of her early life – the values of
her parents – respect for other people.
They had little money but she was materially and
emotionally secure.
Genetics means we are born with a certain ability and
with motivation and ambition we can reach what is acceptable
as success. Not
many can rise above their upbringing – and this was a
constant theme; those
in prison have had a chaotic life-style which inhibited much
progress in life.
Luck also played a part in her rise from entering the
Police Force as a graduate recruit, through a post teaching
in the
East End
, to Norwich Prison,
Cookham Women’s Prison, Risley and finally Holloway.
Prisons cannot refuse to accept those sentenced even
though many should be in mental health centres.
Male prison officers and the inmates often suffer
from the strain of being ‘macho’ and Jenny Adams Young
had started a training unit to help men communicate – they
had experience but lacked personnel skills.
Of women in prison 60 per cent had been abused, 50
per cent are illiterate, 50 per cent are from a
disadvantaged background.
Many are drug addicts, often used as ‘mules’.
Debt is a huge problem.
Mentoring can help them to order their lives better
and gain access to social services. Responses to crime and
those involved in it should start well before prison.
3. The NCW 'View Point' gambling
survey follow-up
Laura Marshall, an NCW Vice President, explains
the new legislation on gambling.
The
Gambling Act 2005 received Royal Assent in April 2005, after
agreement to pare down the original Gaming Bill and permit
only one Regional Super Casino on a strictly supervised
pilot scheme. The
new Gambling Commission, launched on
1
October 2005
, has as a principal
role, the implementation of the legislation and the creation
and operation of the licensing regime within the framework
of the Act.
Richard
Caborn, Under Secretary of State, has appointed an
independent panel to advise the Government on the areas in
which the new type of casinos created by the Act will be
located. This
panel consists of four members (there are no women on the
panel). These
new developments will, it is claimed, bring inward
investment, regeneration and opportunities for employment.
The Mayor of Blackpool has said that there is
interest already being shown by investors and developers in
Blackpool
, including enquiries
from top department stores and plans to enlarge the airport.
The
Gambling Commission states that it will aim to:
-
Prevent
gambling from being a source of crime
and disorder
-
Prevent
gambling from being associated with crime
or used to
support crime
-
Ensure
that gambling is conducted in a fair and
open way
-
Protect
children and other vulnerable persons from
being harmed
or exploited by gambling
Laura
Marshall asks
members of the National Council of Women to keep a watchful
eye on proposed developments in their localities.
The annual conference of the NCW for
2005 was held at the
Gateway Hotel in Nottingham, over the weekend of
21-23 October 2005.
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