Vicki Markiewicz, Executive Director
We’ve seen a swathe of major policy announcements over the last couple of months, most notably the much-anticipated Independent Sentencing Review and last week’s Spending Review. Together, they offer a powerful opportunity to reimagine how we support people with drug and alcohol support needs in contact with the criminal justice system and, in particular, how we do better by women.
For those of us who’ve spent many years supporting people caught in the cycle of drug and alcohol use and offending, it’s long been clear that short-term prison sentences rarely lead to meaningful change. They can turn lives upside down, remove vital support networks, and miss the deeper reasons someone ends up in prison, which so often include trauma, unmet physical and mental health needs, and struggles with drug and alcohol use.
Encouragingly, the Independent Sentencing Review acknowledged this. It put forward a more hopeful vision, one that focuses on rehabilitation in the community, smarter sentencing, and long-term change. At the heart of the Review is the acknowledgment that the current reliance on short-term prison sentences, particularly for people dependent on drugs or alcohol, is simply not sustainable. It fails to address the root causes of offending and contributes to the revolving door we continue to see in our justice system.
Change Grow Live fully supports the Independent Sentencing Review’s call to move away from short-term prison sentences and towards greater use of community sentences for low-risk offenders with a treatment need.
We’re also encouraged by the emphasis on expanding Community Sentence Treatment Requirements (CSTRs), which offer a practical and compassionate alternative. These changes could make a real difference, especially for women and people whose offending is driven by drug and alcohol use, offering a stronger foundation for recovery and rehabilitation within the community.
One positive step in the Spending Review to support this shift was the £700 million uplift for probation services – a clear signal that there’s appetite to invest in change. However, we also need to look closely at what’s missing.
Around half of people in prison are living with drug dependence. While women make up just 4% of the prison population, they account for 9% of those receiving treatment for drug dependence in custody.
These figures underline the scale and urgency of the challenge we face, and the need to expand treatment capacity, improve continuity of care between prison and the community, and ensure our frontline teams have the resources they need to deliver consistent support.
Yet there’s still been no dedicated investment for community drug and alcohol treatment, and £7 billion is being channelled into building new prison places. That raises important questions about priorities, especially when we know that funding treatment now will avoid far greater social and economic costs in the future, particularly for vulnerable cohorts like women.
At Change Grow Live, we’ve seen how powerful trauma-informed, gender-responsive treatment can be. Women in the justice system are often navigating overlapping challenges: trauma, domestic abuse, poverty, and deep-rooted stigma. These aren’t new issues, but they remain under-addressed. However, the right approach can help women stay connected to their families, build safety and trust, and support long-term recovery. We’re making progress, and our staff are doing extraordinary work, but ambition has to be matched with investment.
The direction of travel from the Sentencing Review is promising. To realise its ambitions and make long-term change, what we need now is a clear delivery plan and the funding to back it, particularly for the women who have long been overlooked and underserved, but for whom a better approach could make all the difference.