The women prisoners that I work with as a prison chaplain are often intelligent and creative and almost always resourceful. However, they are also often badly educated, and before their incarceration were living in poverty and using drugs or alcohol to forget the abuse they have faced. Sending them to prison is certainly punishment, but I would suggest that it punishes all of us, since we foot the bill, not only for their imprisonment, but also for the consequent break up of families and communities.
 
One prison governor I know says that every week he meets a woman for whom prison is the worst option, not just for her but for the whole of society. As a Synod, we have discussed resettlement and restorative justice. However we have not discussed the bigger, and perhaps the better question – particularly for women and children – are there alternatives to prison?
 
There are 14 women's prisons in England, housing just under 5,000 women. In 2006

• One in sixteen prisoners was female
• 28% of women are from ethnic minorities
• More than half of the women in prison has a child under 16, and nearly half of these are single parents
• A third of sentenced women had committed drugs offences
• Half of all women in prison report having experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse
• 80% of women in prison – 4000 – have diagnosable mental health problems

Despite this, the small number of women in custody (compared to men) hampers any resettlement work with women on their release from prison. Because women make up only a small proportion of the prison population, women’s prisons are widely dispersed. As a result many women are imprisoned a long way from home, and the resources to support them on their release are limited because of the distance between prison and their families and home communities. Whilst for men the first priority on release is getting employment, for women getting accommodation normally ranks higher. Our daily prayer for women at my prison is that on release, women will not spend nights sleeping rough, where they are prey not just to the climate, but to those who want to harm them.
Perhaps most important of all, women are normally the primary carers for children and elderly relatives. These relationships are put under huge pressure while women are in custody. Many of our women strive to maintain good relationships with their children, who themselves may feel angry, abandoned and isolated by their mother’s incarceration. An alarmingly high proportion of those children end up in care themselves, perpetuating the cycle of poverty, crime, abuse, and prison.
 
Generally, women are given custodial sentences having committed fewer and less serious offences than men in the same situation. The huge cost to the state of imprisoning women is matched by the cost of their healthcare, family support and education. It is imperative that women who have committed offences are both punished and rehabilitated as a result of their crimes. However, perhaps the better question to ask would be, is our present system of criminal justice the best and most effective approach for women offenders?
 
Very little in prison is beautiful or awesome; there is little time for reflection and wonder. The women I work with aren’t backward in coming forward; they rise to any challenge, and have learnt to appreciate Godly Play. This method of telling bible stories that encourages those listening to think through and articulate the theological and liturgical principles of the Christian faith. In this we glimpse heaven within one another.
One Sunday morning I told the story of the Ten Commandments in prison using Godly Play. It is called The Ten Best Ways to Live. The congregation were fascinated by the story. They were serving sentences for everything from stealing to murder, and as we went through the commandments, their mouths dropped open and they shook their heads. At the end of the story, as I was encouraging reflection, one bright spark asked, ‘If my baby was starving, would it be wrong to steal baby milk for her?”
 
Images of the people of God came to mind, standing around the mountain looking up at Moses for inspiration. “Isn’t that something for the whole community”, I said. “If a child is starving, isn’t that the business of the whole people of God? In a just society, no-one should need to steal to feed their child.” Of course crime will always be perpetrated, and victims of crime must see punishment done. But surely when, in procuring that punishment, society is punishing itself and its children, someone needs to question whether this is the compassionate, constructive and restorative way to deal with women who commit crime.