Women are more commonly primary carers and can suffer devastating loss of home, work and children if sentenced to a custodial setting. Pregnant women and women with small children enter prison, sometimes for financial offending which means their children suffer for their offending.
-– Submission 7, Professor Felicity Gerry KC
Felicity’s Submission to the Victorian Sentencing Council was quoted in their final report, in a section regarding ‘Women and the interests of an offender’s unborn, newborn or dependent child’. Felicity has been agitating for change in sentencing practices regarding women care-givers in Australia and the UK, with recent changes made by the Sentencing Council in the UK following the submission from LEVEL UP.
The Victorian report also cites a discussion paper by Felicity and Lyndon Harris: ‘Women in Prison: Is the Justice System Fit for Purpose?’.
The Victorian Sentencing Council final report is available to read in full here.
