The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

FRIENDS WORLD COMMITTEE FOR CONSULTATION (QUAKERS) www.quno.org

Dear friend

Request for assistance with research into women in prison and children of imprisoned mothers

The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) based in Geneva, Switzerland, is an international non-governmental organisation. We work on issues related to peace and human rights, and have a particular interest in prison conditions and prisoners' welfare.

QUNO has been working for some time on the problems surrounding the imprisonment of women: highlighting the growing numbers of women prisoners, the often poor conditions of women's imprisonment and the impact on women prisoners' families. We are particularly concerned at the effects of imprisonment of women on their children.

We are bringing these issues to the attention of the United Nations, to increase international awareness with a view to improving conditions for women in prison and children of imprisoned mothers. Last July, QUNO published a preliminary research report on women in prison and children of imprisoned mothers (at http://www.geneva.quno.info/pdf/Women_in_Prison_Preliminary.pdf), and has pursued different strategies to create a high level of interest in women in prison among international policy and decision makers.

QUNO is now undertaking more substantive global research into the circumstances and conditions of women's imprisonment. Working with the Quaker Council of European Affairs (QCEA) in Brussels, we are collecting information about women in prison from all regions of the world. Analysis of this material will assist us to identify key issues and good practice, and to develop practical policy recommendations at the national, regional and international levels. We intend to produce significant materials on which advocacy for change in the approach to the imprisonment of women can be based.

We ask for your assistance in our research. We have developed two questionnaires concerning women's imprisonment:

-for prison visitors, prison chaplains, relatives of prisoners, organisations and any other people who have contact with women who are in prison – at http://www.geneva.quno.info/pdf/Quest_NGOs_English.pdf

-for women prisoners and ex-prisoners – at http://www.geneva.quno.info/pdf/Quest_prisoners_English.pdf .

(You will need Adobe Reader to open these files, which you can download for free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)

We would be very grateful if you could:

-complete and return a questionnaire yourselves; and/or

-distribute these questionnaires to people and organisations who might be able to complete them (for example, to individuals who work with women prisoners and their families, to individual ex-prisoners, and within women's prisons).

The questionnaires are also available in French and Spanish.

If you have other materials relevant to women in prison and their children, we would very much appreciate you sharing them with us. I have downloaded what is available without payment from your website, but if you think other publications would be particularly useful, we would be very grateful if you could share them.

We hope to receive all responses by the end of the year, although those received later will be incorporated into later analysis, so please do send them. The questionnaires may be filled out electronically or on paper. Please return them to us by:

Email to: quno2@quno.ch Fax to: +41 22 748 48 19

Or post to:

Women in Prison Project

Quaker United Nations Office

13 Avenue du Mervelet

CH-1209 Geneva

Switzerland

Thank you for helping us with this research.

Yours sincerely

Rachel Brett, Representative (Human Rights & Refugees)

Megan Bastick, Programme Assistant (Human Rights & Refugees)

Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva

Email quno2@quno.ch