Most women look forward to getting out of prison but many also dread it. Prison is tough enough but getting on with life on the outside can be the real challenge. Debts can rack up, banks and insurance companies don’t want to know, safe housing is hard to find. What with sorting out childcare, breaking away from people who are bad for you and worrying about money it’s all too easy to get dragged back into crime. Two in three women are re-convicted within a year of release.
We developed the Financial Freedom newsletter with the Financial Mail on Sunday to deliver the message to women leaving prison that it doesn’t have to be that way. We launched Financial Freedom on Women's Hour on 22 April 2010 as copies were sent to all women's prisons. The collaboration grew out of Prison Reform Trust’s ongoing work with editors of national newspapers. We aim regularly to accompany editors into prisons to see the conditions for themselves and meet prisoners, governors and staff. It is important that those who pass judgement in editorial decisions and provide information to the public do so based on knowledge and experience.
Read the second edition of Financial Freedom here.
Lisa Buckingham editor of the Financial Mail in Sunday joined PRT to visit women’s prison HMP Downview and Anawim, the women’s centre in Birmingham. We are grateful to the women and staff in Downview, Holloway and Anawim for all the help and advice they gave to make this first newspaper for women leaving prison a success.
Watch Lisa Buckingham talking about Financial Freedom, women in prison and women's centres here
The central message of Financial Freedom is that while it is never easy coming out of prison, there are people out there who can help. The information and inspiration in Financial Freedom is a starting point for women to change their lives. It will enable women leaving prison to make contact with groups and organisations that can offer the help and support needed to break the cycle of offending behaviour. The paper contains contact numbers for women’s advice and support services across the country and carries the number of the Financial Freedom free phone information line which holds a list of women’s centres in England and Wales.
The Financial Mail Women’s Forum has also created a ‘Fresh Start’ section on its website which contains articles with advice and information for women on subjects from job interviews to tax advice.
There is now cross party consensus that locking up 12,000 women a year, most on remand or to serve a short sentence, is an ineffective and disproportionate punishment. What works is reducing crime and helping women at the same time by giving them the chance to take control of their own lives. Over £15 million has been spent on creating women’s centres across England and Wales to build a network of support – for women who are vulnerable and in trouble and for women coming out of prison.
These women’s centres can provide help with housing, finances, childcare, benefits, job hunting, healthcare, beating addictions, escaping domestic violence and lots of other things that women have to deal with when they come out of prison. Most importantly they provide real support from other women, many of whom have been through, and survived, prison themselves.
Financial Freedom sits alongside a programme of applied research, in partnership with UNLOCK, the National Association of Reformed Offenders, into the financial exclusion faced by prisoners, former offenders and their families. The research will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the nature and extent of such exclusion. The aim is to change commercial and government policy and practice in relation to such vital elements of resettlement as bank accounts and insurance cover. The Prison Reform Trust wants to ensure that leaving prison is no longer the start of a second harsh sentence of financial and social exclusion.