Education in women's prisons, the Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status, new resources and more...
A newsletter from Women Beyond Walls - together we can build collective power and amplify voices to end the over-incarceration of women and girls worldwide.
Hello Friends,
In this edition of our newsletter, as the new school year kicks off for many worldwide and UNESCO’s International Literacy Day is recognised, we spotlight an often-overlooked aspect of the criminal justice system: education in women’s prisons. Education is a critical empowerment tool, which plays a pivotal role in their post-prison outcomes. Women face unique educational challenges within prison systems, including overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, and limited resources.
According to global research, a significant proportion of incarcerated women have limited educational backgrounds, with a substantial percentage having not completed high school or obtained basic literacy skills. In many regions, illiteracy rates among women in prisons far exceed those in the general population. These stark disparities highlight the urgent need for educational interventions within women's prisons, emphasising the critical role of literacy programs in empowering incarcerated women and better enabling them to rebuild their lives after prison
Around the world, organisations and activists are working tirelessly to improve educational opportunities for incarcerated women. Initiatives such as the Mekelle Prison Project in Ethiopia and similar efforts in other countries are helping incarcerated women gain literacy skills and much-needed confidence. The positive outcomes of these initiatives extend to families and communities, creating a more hopeful and secure future for all.
News from around the world
Global: Women Beyond Walls is thrilled to join the Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status. This is a coalition that advocates for the reform of laws and practices that target people based on their status (social, political, or economic) or for their activism. The coalition include advocates, lawyers, members of the judiciary, campaigners, activists, and researchers from over 60 organisations across the world, working together to challenge the criminalisation of people based on who they are, rather than what they have done. They do this through research, advocacy, strategic litigation, and movement-building. For more information and details on how to join, visit decrimpovertystatus.org or follow @DecrimPS on social media.
Columbia: This France24 report (in Spanish) outlines the impact of the war on drugs on women, leading to high incarceration rates. We were also thrilled to read an interview in The Guardian with our friend Claudia Cardona about her vital work with Mujeres Libres Colombia.
Iran: The Iranian Parliament passed the Chastity and Hijab Bill which vastly increases jail terms and issues crushing fines on women and girls who do not obey the compulsory dress code. Under this new, even stricter bill - which is now in its final stage of consideration before the Guardian Council - those flouting the country’s strict Islamic dress code on head coverings and modest clothing risk up to 10 years in jail. Under the same bill, those found in breach could be flogged, as well as fined up to 360 million Iranian rials (USD 8,522.73). They also face travel restrictions and deprivation of online access. Under the previous legislation, such an offence carried a jail term of up to two months, or a fine of up to 500,000 Iranian rials (USD 11.84). The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that this draconian bill flagrantly flies in the face of international law, and that it must be shelved.
United States: A woman gave birth in a jail cell in Tennessee after attempting to seek medical help for over an hour. This highlights the issue that there is effectively no national standard of care for women who are incarcerated and pregnant, though most correctional facilities have policies.
Opportunities
The Women and Harm Reduction International Network (WHRIN) has launched their 2023 Campaign to End Violence Against Women who Use Drugs. They’ve shared their toolkit and a call for small grant applications to support the campaign. Applications must be submitted by Friday 6 October 2023.
The Beyond the Bars Conference, centered around the theme ‘Movement Building Towards a Just Africa’, will take place on 2-3 November 2023 in Kenya. CleanStart Africa organises the conference and it will feature expert panels, workshops, and networking events.
Sisters Inside, one of Australia's leading advocates for protecting the human rights of women and children through decarceration, is hosting their 10th Annual Conference in Brisbane, Australia 8-10 November 2023. Registration is open now.
On October 13, National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance in the UK is hosting a free event to bring together practitioners and organisations working with women in criminal justice through the arts or other ways. More information can be found here.
For the Liverpool 2023 Prisons Week Lecture, Dr. Shona Minson will be presenting her work on improving the situation for mothers involved in the criminal justice system and their children. Limited spots are remaining!
Media and literature recommendations
For our UK based friends, on 14 October 2023, the London Film Festival has a viewing of ‘Everything Worthwhile is Done with Other People’, a film by artist Rehana Zaman that compiles the conversations of a group of women from the Global South affected by the carceral state. This piece originated as a series of workshops led through Hibiscus Initiatives. You can buy tickets here. Let us know what you think if you go!
World Coalition released fantastic tools on gender and the death penalty. One of the key documents is a glossary that defines terms related to gender-based discrimination and violence that are omnipresent throughout the judicial process leading to the death penalty. The second is a tool on how to insert gender in abolitionist advocacy. Together, these two resources can help facilitate the implementation of gender-sensitive abolitionist advocacy work.
World Coalition has published its first mapping report on existing data on women on death row. This report gives an overview of the presence of women on death row around the world. To access a summary of this report you can read this article.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a landmark report on human rights in drug policy. The report consolidates existing human rights standards, develops new recommendations, and proposes a blueprint for transformative change, from a global punitive paradigm to drug policies based on health and human rights. The report noted the contribution of disproportionate drug laws to global mass incarceration and documented the use of drug policies to target marginalised groups such as Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, and women. Following this report, more than 130 civil society organisations have called on the international community to reform and rebalance the global drug control regime, and national drug laws and policies. Read more in this IDPC advocacy note.
The Centre for Women’s Justice released a report, ‘Double Standard:Ending the unjust criminalisation of victims of violence against women and girls’. The report sets out evidence of the unjust criminalisation of victims of VAWG in England and Wales for alleged ‘offending’ resulting from their experience of abuse, and the reforms in law and practice that are needed to address this.
Looking for something to read? Check out our book recommendations. Read/watched/listened to something great? Let us know so we can tell others.
If you have any events/resources/reports you want us to consider highlighting in future newsletters, please don’t hesitate to contact us on hello@womenbeyondwalls.org.
With gratitude to the community,
The Women Beyond Walls Team