New report shows impact of education for young women in prison

This blog post by Katy Swaine Williams was originally posted on the Prisoners’ Education Trust website

In conducting this study for Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET) on young women’s education in prison, I spoke to eight very different women, each with distinct, recent experiences of – and leading up to – imprisonment between the ages of 18 and 24. Five of the women were still in prison when we spoke.

It was striking to me how much importance all of the women placed on their education – past, present and future – and how determined many of them were, or had been, to access the best available opportunities in prison to help them make the most of the rest of their lives.

Most of the women were readily able to recall the areas of school life which they had enjoyed and achievements of which they felt proud, whether this was in sport, maths, cookery or psychology. This was accompanied for many by vivid recollections of negative experiences, including bullying and feeling unsupported by teachers, about which they clearly still felt the impact.

Some women described experiences of domestic abuse and coercive control which had had an impact on their experience of school and, in at least one case, continued to pose a risk to them while they were in custody.

For all the women in the study, it was clear that having access to purposeful activity in prison was fundamentally important. Whether through education, sport or employment, this was described as a source of satisfaction, distraction and relative normality, which helped them cope with incarceration.

Time spent inactive, on the wing, was something the women avoided wherever possible. For those who found themselves “stuck on the wing”, this appeared to lead to feelings of desperation and hopelessness.

Common barriers faced by young women

Recent research – including Gilly Sharpe’s longitudinal study Women, stigma and desistance from crime and the Young Women’s Justice project reports – has taught us about the ways in which young women who are often themselves the victims of serious crime or have experienced other forms of adversity (including early contact with the criminal justice system) can find themselves stigmatised, punished and ultimately abandoned by multiple state agencies, including the education system, social care system and criminal justice system. For many young women this builds upon similarly negative experiences during childhood.

This new study for PET echoes many of those findings and underlines how improving young women’s access to good quality education opportunities, both in prison and in the community, could help disrupt this negative narrative.

Like these eight individuals, all young women are different and no single approach to education in prison is going to suit every young woman. There is, however, a strong evidence base indicating common barriers faced by young women, which must form the foundation of future work to develop better educational opportunities for young women in prison.

We know that young women in prison are disproportionately likely to be suffering from mental health needs, often due to childhood trauma and abuse.

We know they are disproportionately likely to be at risk of ongoing gender-based abuse and exploitation.

We know that our understanding of girls’ experience of exclusion in education is under-developed.

We know from work by Milk Honey Bees and others that Black girls experience “adultification” and other harms in the education system.

We know that the over-representation of Black women and women from minority ethnic backgrounds throughout the criminal justice system is particularly acute for young women and even worse for girls. This points to experiences of discrimination which inevitably begin well before the prison gate and is a trend which we ignore at our peril.

There is also more work to be done – informed by insights from young women themselves – to fill gaps in our knowledge and develop solutions. For example, it was not possible in this study to explore the experiences of young migrant women, and this is one of a number of areas that need to be explored further.

Addressing system failures

The experiences of the eight young women in this study point to system failures which the Ministry of Justice’s planned Young Women’s Strategy – first promised in 2021 – must begin to address.

We have recommended that the strategy should include specific attention to improving access to good quality education and employment, informed through co-production with young women with relevant lived experience – including Black women, women from minority ethnic backgrounds and migrant young women – and women’s specialist services.

We have proposed that a more specialised structure should be put in place for young women in custody, modelled on provision for children with appropriate modifications, and filled with opportunities for meaningful and purposeful activity.

Several of the women described the lack of provision in prison to meet their mental health needs, including delays in mental health assessments, and subsequent delays in provision of support. Education helped some young women to cope with this, but the lack of mental health support was also felt as a barrier to engagement. We have highlighted the need for prompt assessments of mental health needs and of any ongoing risk of harm to young women from domestic abuse and other forms of violence against women and girls, as well as prompt provision of support, to aid their engagement in education.

It will be necessary to engage and retain highly skilled staff, with adequate resources, to ensure education opportunities are accessible to young women, that they are used as an opportunity to help improve mental wellbeing and confidence, and that they provide an effective stepping stone to future opportunities post-release – with appropriate ambition for young women’s futures. Having transitional support to continue with education and access employment post-release will also be key.