Glasgow CJA has set up a Strategic Women Offenders Group to :
- Consider how existing services work to reduce offending/ re-offending among women in the city.
- Develop and promote a shared understanding of the particular issues related to women’s offending and to ensure strategies and services to address these.
- Promote and support improvement and development as necessary.
- Share and use information to monitor and evaluate services and to better target and develop services to meet the needs of women offenders
The group will also have responsibility to oversee the use of the additional funding provided by the Scottish Government to support women involved in offending and to make recommendations for future development.
The funding in 2010/11 has specific aims of:
- Reducing the numbers of women on remand by better use of supervised bail and other supports prior to trial.
- Ensuring sentencers have an awareness of and confidence in the range of community options available for women
- Guaranteeing all women returning from prison a service relevant to their needs, including remand prisoners and those released on Home Detention Curfew
- Providing community based mentoring or befriending support