A BAME woman's right to rehabilitation

: The case study of contemporary England & Wales

Abstract

The issues that Black, Asian, Minority, and Ethnic (BAME) women offenders are experiencing within the criminal justice system (CJS) of England and Wales are not being adequately researched on. And this continues to hamper their successful rehabilitation. Unlike their White counterpart, BAME women offenders are constantly faced with multiple intersecting inequalities within the CJS that prevents them from equally accessing rehabilitation services. This inequality is further reflected in the extremely small numbers of research that have been conducted that target BAME women offenders. Most research tend to homogenise the experiences of all women, while some pay little attention to BAME women offenders. These research tend to routinely overlook the specific needs of BAME women and girls in prisons despite their percentage in prisons. Hence, this study decides to focus extensively on this topic. It discusses in depth, the experiences of BAME women offenders in England and Wales CJS and how these issues can be addressed by both countries’ Ministry of Justice (MoJ). To achieve this, the study interrogated, extensively, academic resources, government articles and site/statistics, NGO reports, books, to name a few, that have written on the topic. Also, it employed the Rotman’s Rights of Rehabilitation, UN Bangkok Rules, and the European Convention on Human Rights to reveal the inefficiency of England and Wales’ CJS in addressing rehabilitative issues of their BAME women offenders. Through this, it has been discovered that BAME women offenders in England and Wales, firstly, are treated less than other women in the system, and secondly, are not being rehabilitated appropriately. BAME women offenders’ experiences differ from others, thus should have tailored solutions to their challenges. And this can be learnt from how Canada has been able to introduce Healing Lodges as one of the rehabilitation services offered to Indigenous women offenders. Overall, this dissertation aims to contribute to an understanding of the distinct nature of minority groups within academic research.

Date of Award	Jul 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Eithne Dowds (Supervisor) & Kevin J. Brown (Supervisor)