In partnership with other agencies, the Executive has established a 'Time Out' centre for women in the criminal justice system. The centre had been proposed by the Ministerial Group on Women Offenders in its report 'A Better Way', which identified some of the particular needs of women in the criminal justice system. The centre is a community resource managed by criminal justice social work services, operating as a key component of a network of community services for women.
What's It All About?
The policy aim of Time Out is to:
- Reduce the number of female offenders entering custody by offering the court and criminal justice system options to meet the needs of the woman and the needs of the judiciary.
- Assist women to avert the crises that often accompany their lives by providing a stable environment, thus enabling services to enhance the provision of prevention work.
- Provide a comprehensive service which will enable women to move on with their lives to the extent that they can realistically exit services confidently and re-integrate fully into society.
It is anticipated that the Time Out centre will eventually go some way to helping the problem of over-crowding at Cornton Vale. For this reason, Glasgow was selected as the site for the centre, given that the city is disproportionately represented in the Cornton Vale population. The centre can, however, accept referrals from other areas.
Operational management responsibility for the Time Out centre was awarded by Glasgow City Council to Turning Point following a tendering exercise, and the centre was formally launched at the end of January 2004.
What does it offer?
Service users are women offenders over the age of 18 who have been assessed as particularly vulnerable to custody or re-offending. They may or may not have a substance misuse problem.
The centre comprises both a residential unit and a day centre.
Residential Unit
The Residential Unit is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year but women generally stay for only a short period of time. Admission to the residential unit is planned and comes through a variety of referral sources, although the expectation is that the overall majority will be as a result of court referrals. The unit has a 6-bed detox unit and an 8-bed supported accommodation unit, which are projected to be used by 85 and 50 women, respectively, during the course of 12 months.
Day centre
The Day Centre operates 9am to 9pm, 7 days a week. It offers assessments, counselling, referrals and groupwork for female offenders. It provides valuable in-reach to other services such as welfare rights, health and employment/training facilities. It is projected that the day centre will be used by 400 women annually.
Evaluation
An independent evaluation of the 218 centre was published on 28 Paril 2006 and was broadly positive. Key conclusions indicated that the centre led to specific benefits for the service users, including:
- Reductions or cessation in offending;
- Reductions in drug use and/or the levels of medication prescribed;
- Improvements in physical and psuychological health, such as reductions in self harm;
- Attainment of stable accommodation arrangements;
- More qualitative improvements such as genearl life-skills.
As a result of the evaluation Ministers have agreed to continue to provide funding for the centre to allow its success to be measured over the longer term. The full text of the evaluation can be read at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/resource/doc/112785/0027372.pdf