ASEAN has World's Biggest Percentage of Women Prisoners Experts Press for Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration

Rob Allen, an independent researcher, based on findings from a research on women prisoners' social reintegration in Southeast Asia says that the region has the world's highest percentage of women in the inmate population. The percentage is exceptionally high in Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. In Southeast Asia, 10 per cent of the prison population is female. Four in five women prisoners in Thailand and Indonesia are incarcerated over drug offences.

A review shows that women prisoners get involved in drug offences because of poverty and the need to financially support their family. Women prisoners are coerced, sometimes using physical force, to serve as drug dealers or drug agents. Inmates with such experiences have a higher risk of reoffending. Drug possession for one's usage was also a factor, but of less significance, and in some cases it was domestic violence that drove women to drugs to begin with. 

Allen adds that to solve prison overcrowding, it is necessary to examine the whole criminal justice system, from identifying root causes to finding potential solutions. After looking into the motives behind offending and providing rehabilitation and social reintegration, relevant parties should also take into account how women prisoners will be able to start a new and quality life after being released. Assessments should be conducted to determine their safety risks when they return to their family. Moreover, the government and civil society should play a role in giving reliable support to former inmates via financial provisions or local/national mechanisms of cooperation.

Muriel Jourdan-Ethvignot, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), says that the importance of rehabilitation and social reintegration is specified under several international laws and agreements namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a multilateral treaty on human rights, the Nelson Mandela Rules, that sets the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and the Bangkok Rules or the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders. 

Those three international guidelines aim at curbing reoffending and building public safety. Today, several pieces of research show that the rehabilitation of women prisoners by mean of education, vocational training, and related activities can reduce reoffending rates especially among women prisoners whose number has risen by 50 per cent since 2000.

The social reintegration process must cover both detention and post-detention periods in order to see the overall picture of women prisoners' circumstances, including their motives, from root causes to problems like domestic violence, drug issues, and difficulty in getting housing or a job after they are released.

Jourdan-Ethvignot says that to reduce reoffending, Bolivia has provided prisoners with vocational training for work in the construction industry that has a high labour demand and pays construction workers 25 per cent higher than the minimum wage. Such training boosts prisoners' vocational skills, financial security, and a chance at a normal life on a sustainable basis while reducing the risk of reoffending. 

Bolivia has further cooperated with the National Association of Women Construction Workers to help former prisoners find job opportunities and start their own business. 

Aisyah Yuliani, Criminal Justice Program Coordinator at UNODC, says that prior to the release of women prisoners in Indonesia, they receive support for social reintegration, such as mental health counselling, addiction treatment, and opportunities to reconnect with family members. 

Indonesia has also made legal progress by passing a law that requires families to report to authorities if any of their members are addicted to drugs. This legislation has increased the chances of families in providing a new opportunity to prisoners, making it easier for the latter to win acceptance and to reintegrate into their family/society. 

Chontit Chuenurah, Director of the Office for the Bangkok Rules and Treatment of Offenders, TIJ, says that the Corrections Department's data shows that there are about 380,000 prisoners in Thailand. 

Of them, 12.6 per cent or 48,000 are female. The average age of women prisoners is 34. The biggest group of women prisoners (44 per cent) received a prison term of two to five years. The second biggest group (18%) are sentenced to five to 10 years in prison, and the third biggest group (10%) are sentenced to a term of 20 to 50 years. Of all women prisoners, 83 per cent are convicted of drug offences, 10.3 per cent for theft, and another 1.4 per cent for physical assault.

Regarding education, two in three women prisoners have not even completed senior secondary education. Of all women prisoners, 80 per cent are mothers.

The reoffending rate over the first three years after release is as high as 34 per cent among former prisoners in Thailand. This rate is 26 per cent within a two year period, and 14.5 per cent within the first year after release. Reoffending happens because of two main reasons: 1) The lack of appropriate and efficient rehabilitation in the face of prison overcrowding; and 2) Problems during the post-release period such as stigmatization, low self-confidence, unemployment, broken family, and housing problems. 

Thailand has been trying to reduce the reoffending rate through various methods. For example, it has implemented a rehabilitation program for women prisoners prior to release and founded the Center for Assistance to Reintegration and Employment (CARE) via the Corrections Department with the goal of helping former inmates find jobs that are in line with their background and real living conditions outside prison, even in the face of changing economic and social contexts. In early 2020, the Thai government also introduced tax incentives to encourage businesses/social enterprises to hire former inmates.

Meanwhile, TIJ has promoted the social partnership model by fostering collaboration with 50 experts from nine different groups including external specialists and therapists specializing in mental empowerment, money management, career development, business planning, reuniting with family, and post-release support. This collaborative initiative for women prisoners was piloted at Ayutthaya Central Prison. Under the initiative, a total of 34 women prisoners received 250 hours of training during the three months before their release.

The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted the rehabilitation and social reintegration of prisoners in many countries as it constrains prisoners from connecting with their family or children and limits external agencies’ access to provide vocational training in prison. In the face of COVID-19, concerns and stress grew to a point that the provision of useful classes and vocational training to prisoners was cancelled midway. As the COVID-19 crisis has affected societies and economies around the world, experts believe without appropriate pre-release support and aftercare services this situation will create additional barrier for released prisoners in reintegrating back into communities.