Women ‘given tents to live in’ after early prison release

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1. Female prisoners being freed under the early release scheme are being given tents to sleep in as they are forced into homelessness, campaigners and lawyers have said.

   It comes after i revealed the probation service is struggling to cope with the “chaos” of the mass early releases under the Government’s SDS40 early release scheme aimed at dealing with the prison overcrowding crisis.

   Lawyers, charities and campaign groups have warned women are falling through “gaps in a broken system” as they are not offered suitable accommodation upon early release. The issue poses a particular risk as at least 57 per cent of women in prison or under community supervision are survivors of domestic abuse, according to the charity Refuge.

   The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said that all former inmates deemed at risk of homelessness are offered up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation.

   But charities and campaign groups including Women in Prison, Level Up, and the Prison Advice and Care Trust estimate hundreds of women freed under the early release scheme since September do not have stable accommodation.

   They say in areas surrounding at least two of the 12 women’s prisons in England and Wales – HMP New Hall, in West Yorkshire, and HMP Styal, in Cheshire – community groups and homelessness projects have been forced to hand out tents to women left with nowhere to stay after their release.

   Dr Laura Janes, a solicitor specialising in prison law, said: “If a person has nowhere to live at the point when they are entitled to automatic early release, that will not prevent them being released and they will be released homeless.

   “That’s why we’re seeing the phenomenon of women being released with tents.”

   The Prison Advice and Care Trust estimates that around six in ten women freed under the scheme are being released without stable accommodation. Approximately 1,300 women will be released under the scheme between September and January 2025, according to Women in Prison.

   The MoJ said it did not recognise reports of women leaving prison being given tents because of a lack of suitable accommodation.

   However, in recent years there have been reports of former prisoners – both men and women – being given tents on release, including inmates from HMP Bronzefield women’s prison in Surrey.

   Government data shows 8,355 people in England and Wales – or 12 per cent of prison leavers – were released from custody straight into rough sleeping last year, an increase of 2,310 on the previous year.

   The Corston Report, a 2006 review of vulnerable women in the criminal justice system, acknowledged the need for suitable accommodation for female inmates leaving prison, both for personal safety and to avoid reoffending.

   The findings were repeated in the Conservative government’s 2019 Female Offender Strategy.

   “If we are serious about reducing reoffending, we need to act now to ensure women receive the holistic support they need to effectively resettle and make a fresh start,” said Andy Keen-Downs, CEO of the Prison Advice and Care Trust.

   Read more here: [https://inews.co.uk/news/housing/women-tents-early-prison-release-3394044](https://inews.co.uk/news/housing/women-tents-early-prison-release-3394044)

2. Men given carboard boxes. What a pointlessly, or maliciously gendered article. Given that the 8000 odd prisoners being released to homlessness is higher than the total female prison population, we can safely assume the overwhelming majority of these are men. But fuck them i guess.

3. Ah yes, so women who get released from prison are immediately made destitute. But foreign men who illegally cross the channel from France are housed in hotels with three meals a day, access to private doctors and a bit of pocket money.

   Do we actually want a Reform UK government? Because this is how you get one.

4. I interviewed a couple of the ladies, but i didn’t get much response. It was too in-tents

5. Tell them to say they live in Dover when released (get travel paid), turn up on beach in Dover claiming to be from any country in the world (don’t forget to dump any IDs).

   They’ll get free accommodation and allowance and generally be treated a lot better.

6. ~~Women~~ Prisoners ‘given tents to live in’ after early prison release

7. What a stupid system.
   Give them somewhere to stay to give them the best chance once released.

8. Have they considered entering the country illegally?

9. Now is the winter of our discount tents

10. So are they trying to incentivise tent cities in the UK like the US? Are we this inadequate at solving our problems.

    Labour?Cons? it doesn’t matter does it. None of them truly want to fix our issues with housing etc, or they would come with real policy. No one should be homeless, let alone after your kicked out of prison… all that leads to is more crime and more of the same.

11. We have so many empty buildings and houses we could be using to house these people. But the state doesn’t actually care about rehabilitation

12. Better than I was offered when I was homeless as an 18 year old man.

13. So they house illegal immigrants but give our ppl tents, ks that right?

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