NEWS

2010 - 2011 Griffins Research Fellowships: - applications now welcome

Women in Focus event on 26th November is rated a great success by delegates

The Griffins Society, Clinks and Women in Prison worked with the Ministry of Justice and the Government Equalities Office to present a major conference about the Gender Equality Duty and its implications for work with women offenders. The conference took place on 26th November 2009 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, London. Speakers included the Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, Maria Eagle MP; Jackie Lowthian, Griffins Society Trustee and Nacro's National Policy Development Manager; and Adele Baumgardt, National Commissioner for Women. Delegates rated it highly in their feedback: “This event was fantastic" said one delegate, and others commented on the value of the conference in setting out exactly how the Gender Equality Duty can stimulate better provision for women in the criminal justice system. 

Workshops were led by projects that help achieve the distinct approach to working with women that was recommended by Baroness Corston in her 2007 report.This gave delegates plenty of opportunity to learn about 'what works' with women. An afternoon panel comprised HH Judge Adele Williams; Wendy Cranmer, Griffins Trustee and ex-prisoner; Stella Lanning, Manager of Peterborough Women's Centre; Trevor Williams, East of England DOM; and the Rt Hon Theresa May MP, Shadow Minister for Women.

The event was the national conference in a series of ten ‘Women in Focus’ regional events to publicise the implications of the gender equality duty for the work of the criminal justice system.

One delegate wrote that the event was "Well organised and useful - I hope it will make a difference - but previous similar events have unfortunately not had a great impact”. We are determined to keep the issues alive so that this event will have a sustained impact. The organisers are producing a web site that will report on the conference outcomes in more detail, which will help keep the learning from the conference alive. More details of the web site will be available shortly.

Griffins Fellowships evaluation



We have just published our evaluation of the 2008-2009 Griffins Fellowships Programme. The Programme runs each year in partnership with the London School of Economics. There were six Fellows in the 2008-2009 academic year. Their research focused on a range of issues facing women in the criminal justice system, ranging from the effectiveness of the Freedom Programme for women affected by domestic violence, to pioneering work in a midlands Youth Offending Team with girls and young women. Reports of all six research projects will be available for downloading over the coming months.

The evaluation shows that the Fellows, all of whom are criminal justice system staff who carry out their research alongside their work commitments, greatly valued and enjoyed the experience. All six said they would definitely recommend the Fellowships Programme to other people: one commented that “it has been inspiring to meet like minded people who are prepared to listen and debate and also are fighting to change a system which is so discriminatory to women. I cannot thank you enough”.

The report of the evaluation can be downloaded here.


Sex Workers in Prison: Project Evaluation (April 2009)

Women Offenders: a research opportunity

Would you like to contribute to practice and policy debates about women offenders by undertaking pioneering research?

If you would like more information about Griffins Research Fellowships, for which applications are now welcome, click here.