Shabana Mahmood risks putting more pregnant women behind bars through herbill to prevent new guidelineswhich highlighted the need for pre-sentencing reports based on “different personal characteristics” including age, sex and ethnicity, charities have warned.
The justice secretary introduced the bill as emergency legislation after the Sentencing Council’s guidelines provoked claims of a “two-tier” justice system, with Mahmood saying she “would not stand for differential treatment before the law like this”. The councilsuspended the guidancehours before it was due to take effect in response to the backlash.
However, 20 organisations including the Centre for Women’s Justice, Amnesty International and the End Violence AgainstWomenCoalition have written to Mahmood claiming that consequences of ditching the guidelines could be dire, given that they contained detailed advice on sentencing pregnant women and parents of very young children.
Without such guidance, they say, “sentencers may not fully and adequately consider the significant risks that custodial sentences pose to the health and wellbeing of both mother and child; risks that have resulted in the deaths of several babies in the prison estate”.
Heidi Stewart, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, who signed the letter, said: “Under the current sentencing guidelines, hundreds of pregnant women every year are sent to prison. These women face increased risk of miscarriage, pregnancy complications, and in some of the worst cases, the stillbirth or death of their newborn baby.
“These proposals would have changed the way pregnant women are treated by the justice system – recognising that there are very few instances where prison is a reasonable or acceptable sentence. Without them, we are deeply concerned for every pregnant woman who is incarcerated, endangering her health and her ability to access the healthcare she needs – whether that is choosing to continue her pregnancy or not.”
The letter also references evidence of disproportionality in sentencing among minority ethnic groups as highlighted inDavid Lammy’s 2017 review into the justice system. It says the signatories are “deeply concerned by the potential chilling effect and detrimental consequences which the legislation could have on work to ensure that minority and vulnerable groups in the justice system are treated fairly and appropriately by the courts.
“Given the sensitivity and scope of the proposed reform, it is only right that such measures be subject to proper debate or scrutiny, with adequate time to consider potential unintended consequences.”
Announcing the bill, Mahmood said the guidelines created unacceptable differential treatment “where outcomes could be influenced by race, culture or religion”.
But the chair of theSentencingCouncil, Lord Justice Davis, blamed “widespread misunderstanding” for the reaction, insisting that the guidelines relating to pre-sentence reports were just designed to ensure judges and magistrates were fully informed “no more and no less”.
Stephanie Needleman, legal director at Justice, said the government should be expanding, rather than narrowing, the use of pre-sentence reports.
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“We all want fair sentencing, free from bias based on skin colour or ethnicity,” she said. “And we know sending pregnant people to prison risks life-changing harm to mothers and babies. Pre-sentence reports help judges understand more about those whose backgrounds are unfamiliar to them, or who have particular health concerns – yet this bill would deny judges adequate guidance on when such reports would be particularly useful.”
Mark Day, deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, described the bill, which has its committee stage on Wednesday, as “reckless and clumsy”. He said: “Politicians are playing games with real people’s lives. They need to step up and take the heat out of this debate before they do lasting damage.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:“The government supports the use of pre-sentence reports but the Sentencing Council’s guidance risks differential treatment before the law.
“This bill will not affect existing case law or restrict courts from requesting pre-sentence reports when they are appropriate, including for pregnant women and people from an ethnic minority. The government is fully committed to tackling disparities in outcomes in the criminal justice system and has set up the Women’s Justice Board to reduce the number of women going to prison.”