Our Parliamentary Event - January 2022

On Monday 24th January, the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative held a virtual parliamentary event attended by MPs, Peers and representatives from across criminal justice, housing and women’s organisations. Chaired by the Rt Revd. Rachel Treweek, Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons, and featuring five guest speakers, the event highlighted key problems women face within the criminal justice system, specifically when leaving prison and explored policy solutions that could be implemented by the Government to prevent women leaving prison to homelessness.

The event featured five guest speakers; Alison Keightley from the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Bronzefield who spoke about the recent finding that 77% of women left prison from Bronzefield to homelessness in July 2021; John Plummer from the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison initiative who discussed the ongoing campaign to prevent women leaving prison into homelessness; Single Homeless Project’s Shreya Raval who gave insight into Project Kali, a specialist housing service for women leaving prison which uses the ‘housing first’ model; Project Kali service user, Rose, who talked about her personal experience within the criminal justice system and the importance of having accommodation when leaving prison; and Dr Amanda Brown, a general practitioner at HMP Bronzefield who spoke about her encounters as a prison doctor and the impact of homelessness on reoffending.