Charity action

Salute our contributions, but what of Black women in prison?

British culture has never stood still, and its literature, art, music, dance and theatre are constantly being enriched and revitalised by people who can draw on a wide variety of cultural influences from around the world.

But these accomplishments cannot disguise the plight of many people of African Caribbean heritage in housing, health, jobs, education and social justice. In particular, Black women caught in the toils of the law have reason to question the rightness and fairness of the criminal justice system, say prisoners' aid workers.

Women of African Caribbean descent make up 26 per cent of 4000 adult women in UK prisons (total prison population 68,000). Many are Black British females - proportionately less than 3 per cent of the national population. Like other disadvantaged carers and mothers in prison, they are charged with petty offences. Benefit fraud, non payment of fines, not having a television licence, and shoplifting are common. Domestic problems and physical and psychological abuse play their part, according to the charity Women in Prison.

But it is Jamaican women the so-called "drug mules" that are of special concern to us, says Mrs Olga Heaven, director of Hibiscus, a charity founded in 1993.

Mrs Heaven estimates there are around 700 foreign women in UK jails convicted of smuggling drugs, up from around 100 three years ago. Travellers from Jamaica account for more than half the ganja and cocaine, worth £2m per week, intercepted international airports in Britain, according to official statistics.

Metropolitan Police authorities say "The crack market on the streets of London is fuelled by the drug couriers coming into Britain on the Air Jamaica flights to the UK". Thirty-one suspected cocaine "mules" were arrested at Gatwick and Heathrow airports on routine flights from Jamaica. The drugs were estimated to have a street value of £1.5m, according to the task force involving immigration, Customs and Excise and Metropolitan police.

Reasons for the increase in numbers are not hard to find, says Mrs Heaven. Of course greed is a factor, "but we believe that harsh economic conditions must be a strong motivator". It is escape from the slums of Kingston, Spanish Town and tourist haven Montego Bay, and providing a better life for their children that drives many of the Jamaican women now in British jails to subject themselves to the the perils and indignities of being used as drug couriers earning £1000 a trip.

. "Remorseful when caught and imprisoned, the women are disconsolate and fearful in a strange new land," Mrs Heaven says. "We do the best we can, as a small charity, to advise prison authorities on ways to accommodate their needs".

Working with partner organisations in Jamaica, Hibiscus tries to meet the financial and emotional needs of more than 500 dependent children of 160 defendants in British prisons. During their imprisonment their families in Jamaica are helped with school fees, lunch money and food for elderly relatives.

Reintegration and resettlement is another area of the charity's concern. Upon release more than 25 of the women have returned to the island and been helped to develop their employment skills and prospects.

Despite official protestations in the UK and Jamaica that the women have been rightly arrested and imprisoned for their crimes, Mrs Heaven has argued for major changes in judicial procedures and attitudes on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Britain, there is a case for shorter sentences (some average seven yeasr) since longer imprisonment is not serving as a deterrent as evidenced by the increase in drug smugglers in the past three years.

But tinkering with the system is not enough. Sensitivity to the difficulties faced by Black women in a white male dominated judicial and prison regime must be given a higher priority. Blacks are hardly visible in the higher echelons of criminal justice. There are no Black chief probation officers, prison governors, or judicial executives, and there are only five black circuit court judges out of a total of 561, according to the Voice, Black newspaper. This same pattern typifies the task force leadership dealing with drug smuggling from Jamaica and with suspected drug-related, black-on-black gun crimes in London.

The links of disadvantage between sex, race and the law must be severed. Charities such as Women in Prison believe that arrest, sentencing and probationary procedures must be reviewed. Prison authorities should promote individual counselling sessions to raise Black women prisoners' self-esteem and prepare them with job skills for re-entry to the world outside prison bars.

Once released they should be helped to look for work, to find a place to live and care for their children. Both physical and emotional support as well as job training and placement are needed. Community and religious leaders say that without urgent action the unsolved problems of Black women prisoners are a threat to the viability of the Black family.

Taking her campaign to Jamaica, Mrs Heaven has organised high-level meetings of Jamaican and UK authorities. British government and foreign office ministers - Mo Mowlam, Baroness Scotland and Baroness Amos - have condemned drug trafficking as part of Britain's participation in the international "war on drugs".

But broadly, there is little official interest in Britain about Black women prisoners who are foreign nationals. It is widely believed that this is because they are not UK citizens and can easily be deported, swiftly, quietly and efficiently, with no responsibility for their ultimate care and rehabilitation.

Political action on both sides of the Atlantic is required to allay growing fears that the human rights of Black female prisoners are being infringed. The disadvantages that lead to the incarceration of significantly large numbers of Black women must be examined and reformed.

In the short term, the Jamaican government and voluntary organisations need to launch warning women and the public of the dangers of recruitment, arrest and imprisonment if they are caught smuggling drugs into Britain. But the larger goal must be to create a sustainable economy where people are engaged in productive pursuits and women are less susceptible to undertaking criminal activity.

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