This month, teams from PACT and Alana House took part in two powerful events at the University of Reading, helping to shine a light on the challenges many women face within the criminal justice system.
At ‘Women, Girls and Justice: contemporary challenges and debates’, we explored how women’s experiences are often misunderstood. Discussions included how women and girls can be mislabelled or not believed, and how abusive partners can misuse systems to maintain control.
We also hosted a screening of ‘Holloway‘, where six women return to the now abandoned Holloway Prison to take part in a women’s circle.
This film is especially poignant for us as the challenges they are dealing with intersect across all PACT’s services.
- 52% of women in prison were abused as children
- 7 in 10 reported they had experienced domestic abuse
- 31% were taken into care as children
The evening sparked thoughtful discussion and ended with an inspiring Q&A, with a panel including Catherine Parfitt, Thames Valley Police, Chief Inspector and Mairead O’Hanlon, Senior Probation Officer. The discussion highlighted the importance of working together to support women and prevent them from entering the justice system in the first place. As Catherine put it: “we need to shop fishing people out of the river and find out why they are falling in in the first place”.
Alana House also hosted a Health Hub event in partnership with the Probation Service, bringing together women involved with several local services and a wide range of health and wellbeing providers. The event helped improve access to support by offering advice, health checks, and direct connections to ongoing services in a safe and welcoming environment.
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