The Griffins Society’s Sex Workers in Prison SWIP) Project Evaluation Event was held at the Wolfson Theatre, London School of Economics on 29^th April 2009.

The SWIP pilot was established to raise prison staff awareness of sex workers’ support needs. This event provided a good opportunity for The Griffins Society, HM Prison Service and their partner organisations to present the evaluation of the SWIP Project and to formally thank those who contributed to the project’s success.

Speakers at the Evaluation Event included:

Baroness Jean Corston, author of the 2007 report on women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system
Sara Kahner, National Lead Pathway 9, HM Prison Service Women’s Team
Joy Doal and Gina Stokes, Anawim
Louise Clark, SWIP Project Manager
Peter Dunn, Director of The Griffins Society

The Event was chaired by Roma Hooper, Chair of The Griffins Society.

Baroness Corston opened the event by reminding participants that many women who have been caught up in the sex industry are among the most vulnerable women in the criminal justice system but that the system often fails to meet their needs. She spoke of the value of specialist sex workers projects working with prison service establishments in improving the support available to women who have been involved in sex work.

Baroness Corston talks with Peter Dunn, Griffins Society Director

Sara Kahner described the work of HM Prison Service in developing and implementing Pathway 9, which is about support for women prisoners who have been involved in prostitution. She talked about how SWIP and the training for prison staff that it developed is now being mainstreamed in HM Prison Service training for staff working in women’s establishments. In this way, although SWIP has come to an end, the benefits gained from the project can be sustained.

Roma Hooper, Chair of The Griffins Society

Louise Clark presented the findings of the SWIP evaluation. These included the extent to which SWIP was successful in raising staff awareness of the needs of women who have been involved in sex work (as well as achieving attitude change, in many instances, and teaching skills for interventions); and developing partnerships between prisons and local sex work support projects. Louise showed how staff had benefited greatly from the training and from the involvement in it of local sex workers projects, some of whom had established partnership agreements with their local prisons as a result of SWIP.

SWIP project manager Louise Clark

Joy Doal and Gina Stokes spoke about their experiences, at Anawim, of working with SWIP and HM Prison Service in delivering the SWIP training. Anawim, based in Birmingham, has many years’ experience of supporting sex workers. Their involvement in SWIP provided a highly effective means of enabling prison staff to pick up on and understand many of the issues that women involved in sex work face. As well as providing support, projects such as Anawim also enable women to safeguard their and each other’s safety through schemes such as UglyMug, a system for reporting violence.

Joy Doal and Gina Stokes telling delegates about the work of ANAWIM

Peter Dunn spoke about how SWIP came about as a result of The Griffins Society implementing the recommendations made by Louise Clark when she was a Griffins Research Fellow, and how this showed the benefits that can be achieved when research findings are applied in developing practice. He summarized the research projects being progressed by the current Griffins Research Fellows and how the Society aims to ensure that these projects will bring about similar improvements in the way the criminal justice system engages with women.

People, organisations and Prison Service establishments who helped make SWIP a success

Much of SWIP’s success can be attributed to the hard work and enthusiasm by the staff of prisons and local projects. So, the event ended with the presentation of certificates to those whose contributions had helped ensure the success of the project.

Please click here to download a copy of the SWIP evaluation (Word format).

Please click here to download the latest SWIP newsletter (Word format).

SWIP: Information Development & Training to enable support for Sex Workers in Prison
SWIP was a Griffins Society project in partnership with the HM Prison Service Women & Young People’s Group