Research conducted with girls in prison discerned a difference in attitudes among participants in their attitudes to their future. Some girls conveyed a clear impression of optimism, bedded in a sense of agency, about what would happen when they left custody. Others were fatalistic about their prospects (Bateman et al, 2013a). For the former group, this was not simply a case of expressing good intentions about not getting into trouble in the future (nearly all the girls did that). Rather it was a powerful
determination that they would take a different course from the one they had pursued hitherto, in spite of the obstacles that they were able to articulate.
overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenges they faced. While the study was not designed to look at outcomes, in the light of the relationship between agency and desistance attested by the literature (c.f. Maruna 2001), the authors were persuaded that the prospects for reduced offending were greater for the former group of girls (Bateman et al, 2013a). In this context, effective intervention to support desistance would appear to involve helping girls and young women to develop an appropriate personal narrative that allows them to shift from seeing themselves as a ‘young offender’ to a more positive gender-identity. Doing so can allow them to take more control over their future rather than being passive and vulnerable to their the influences of past adverse experiences of victimisation (Greene, Peters and Associates, 1998). Importantly, the distinction between agency and fatalism was not an absolute one, and some young women could shift from one position to the other relatively quickly. It was clear from the research that resettlement provision could play a role in helping to affect shifts in a positive direction. For instance, as noted earlier in the report, ensuring that arrangements for release, orientated on future goals as determined the girls themselves, were in place was associated with increased optimism and a sense of being able to overcome challenges. As one girl put it, where opportunities were made available to them,
‘Nothing’s really that hard, you can do it!’ (Bateman et al, 2013a: 68).
Empowering relationships with staff
The early development of trusting relationships with keyworkers is seen as particularly critical in services established specifically for the resettlement of girls and young women. Researchers have stressed the importance of workers engaging the girls sufficiently while they are still in custody in order to build that trust and rapport (Greene, Peters and Associates, 1998; Cowles, Castellano and Gransky, 1995). An important feature of the GROWTH programme in the United States, for instance, was that each girl maintained the same caseworker throughout the two-year programme, and that this relationship was started in earnest well before release (Gies, 2003). After release from custody, the weekly supervision meetings are referred to specifically as ‘empowerment meetings’, in which counsellors focus on the teenage girl’s personal growth and attitudinal resilience (Gies, 2003). In the United States, some probation services have reorganised their caseloads. All girls are supervised by a single team that is trained to work exclusively with that specific group in order to increase the prospects of developing appropriate relationships (Greene, Peters and Associates, 1998).
The girls in Bateman et al’s study (2013a) also stressed the importance of their relationship with the staff responsible for providing resettlement support. Most participants in the research made a clear distinction between staff that ‘cared’ for them and those who did not. The latter were characterised as coming to work for material reasons. Staff in the former category were those perceived as showing compassion and understanding and those who listened to the girls concerns. On the one hand, listening was construed as demonstrating concern about what the girls were feeling, but it was also construed as demonstrating a commitment to a participatory approach to rehabilitation. This approach drew on the girl’s own strengths and interests and provided support that would allow them to make progress against the needs that they had identified themselves, rather than reflecting agency priorities or a standardised form of intervention. Practitioners who conveyed a belief in the young person’s capacity to change, however inauspicious previous experiences, were also regarded as demonstrating that they cared. Reliability, consistency and the provision of useful and accurate practical advice and information were also characteristics that the girls identified as indicative of ‘caring’. Participants valued staff who:
• came to see them regularly
• had delivered on what they had previously undertaken to do
• were proactive in identifying opportunities that were consistent with the girls’ expressed preferences (Bateman et al, 2013a.).
As described earlier in this section of the report, where there was early planning for release and clear arrangements in place for the return to the community, girls were more likely to a positive outlook on their future chances of avoiding reoffending. But provision of practical support, and engaging young women in a participatory manner, were also interpreted as the worker demonstrating concern for the girl’s wellbeing, which was in turn more likely to engender a sense of agency. As the authors argue:
‘It was possible … for a virtuous circle to develop, whereby caring professionals promoted a sense of agency and engaged in forward planning, in partnership with the girls, to facilitate the transition back into the community. The associated increased certainty about what the future holds in turn enhanced a sense of optimism in the young women that it was possible to overcome the obstacles which impeded their paths to desistance’ (Bateman et al, 2013a).
One rationale for provision focusing on improving girls’ and young women’s sense of self and
strengthening their place within network of relationships in the community is that resettlement services are inevitably time limited in line with statutory requirements or by constraints of resources. As previous work by Beyond Youth Custody has argued, successful resettlement engagement involves moving through a three stage process that culminates in the young person engaging with the wider society, whereby a positive shift in identity
‘is no longer dependent on the relationship with particular services, but enables him or her to develop a constructive engagement with a broader range of agencies and wider society’ (Bateman and Hazel, 2013a: 29).
In this context, the importance of agency becomes apparent.
‘Intersectionality’
Reference has already been made to the danger that girls and young women tend to fall between two stools. Much of the literature on interventions with young people who offend is gender neutral while that which focuses on gender sensitive provisions is largely concerned with adult women (Burman and Batchelor, 2009). Owen and Bloom (2000) warn of another problem of ‘intersectionality’ that may have implications for resettlement of young females. Their study of the needs of young females who offend in the United States noted that girls from minority ethnic groups had different interactions with the juvenile justice system from white girls and may have different needs in relation to power relations. Such findings serve as a powerful reminder that girls and young women in the justice system are not a homogenous group, and that cultural differences may well open up opportunities for developing personal narratives and identity in various ways.