Submission to the Department of Health Women’s Health Strategy consultation

“Women across the whole criminal justice system often suffer from unmet physical and mental health problems, some of which contribute to their criminalisation.

“Nowhere is the disparity in women’s healthcare more magnified than in women’s prisons. Women in prison tend to have extremely poor health which is often not met in prison. If the Department of Health is able to rise to the challenge of meeting the health needs of women in prison, then it will have demonstrated it can meet the needs of the most marginalised of women.

“A strategy for women’s health should look at health and wellbeing in its broadest sense. The impact that the prison environment has on women’s health and wellbeing is negative, exacerbating existing health inequalities and creating new ones.”

Read the full submission