Courts and custody suites services
Alana House has many years of experience in supporting women involved or at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system. Since 2010, Alana House has supported women in the community: adopting the recommendations from the Corston Report, which identified nine pathways of support and the trauma-informed approach needed to support women.
Custody suites service
Our goal is to have a presence in local custody suites each day to maximise the ‘reachable/teachable’ moments, promote early intervention, avoid continued involvement with criminal justice system and support them in making positive changes in their lives.
In Berkshire, 184 women were cautioned by Thames Valley Police or received a community resolution (2019/20). Many women need assistance to deal with root causes of offending behaviours to break the cycle of offending.
On average 150 females are entering custody in Berkshire each month.
Courts service
We have established a referral process for women who are due to be sentenced at the courts in Berkshire. This means that they may be offered support prior to being sentenced and an assessment of needs, and the support options from Alana House can be made available to the court. This assessment aims to help judges, magistrates and other sentencers better understand how past trauma can affect a woman’s behaviour and how helping them deal with this trauma can support a reduction in further offending.
We aim to support women to engage with community sentences and comply with probation requirements, thereby reducing breaches and avoiding short prison sentences which are disruptive to women’s lives and further threaten their stability in the community, often involving further intergenerational trauma in the form of maternal separation.
Alana House staff can advocate for the women and demonstrate to the court how support from Alana House can reduce the likelihood of further offences by addressing the needs that underlie a women’s offending behaviour.
Volunteers will support the service through presence at courts and custody suites by signposting to Alana House services, completing referral forms and signposting to other services as appropriate. We can support a woman at court on the day of sentencing.
