Expert calls for wiser policy on women and prison
In her keynote speech at the Women in Prison seminar on 22 May, Baroness Jean Corston urged Ireland not to make the same mistakes Britain did in the matter of women and criminal justice. Community sanctions, she argued, should be the norm for women offenders, and prison sentences should be reserved for serious or violent offenders. As author of the Corston Report, a commissioned study of women and the criminal justice system in Britain, Baroness Corston is a renowned authority on the problems generated for families and communities when women who are minor offenders are incarcerated. The seminar was organised by the Jesuit Centre of Faith and Justice and the Bar Council. Other speakers included Tony O’Riordan SJ, Dr Mary Redmond and Senator Ivana Bacik.