OFFENDERS at a flagship Glasgow service say rolling out community-based alternatives to jail for women will save lives and help future generations.

Users of Turning Point Scotland's 218 Service spoke out after Justice Secretary Michael Matheson announced plans to shelf plans for a £75million women's prison in Inverclyde.

During a visit to the 218 centre yesterday, Mr Matheson said it was "exactly the type of sophisticated approach that I would like to see as part of our plans for the way in which we look after women in custody".

The centre, which was set up in 2003, has 12 bedrooms where low-level offenders can stay for three or six months to tackle their problems. There is also a range of day services.

A study found that for every £1 invested in the service there was a saving of £2.50 per year.

Women staying in the residential centre welcomed the move to expand community facilities.

Pamela, 34, said her time in Cornton Vale, the country's only female prison, during remand for shoplifting and theft offences, was detrimental to her health.

She said: "In Cornton Vale you have to live up to a certain image and be a certain way, where as here you can be yourself.

"You've got to build up an image in prison, it' s not a nice place to be. It affects your mental health."

She said she wanted to be at the 218 and was embracing the work that needed done.

Pamela says the news not to go ahead with the female prison was "brilliant".

She said: "Because people that have been in prison just end up back in the system and doing the same things all the same time. I think it will be better for the next generation.

"They just put women in and forget about them. You just go out and live the same life again and go back into prison. That's happened to me."

Lorraine, 29, from Glasgow is battling addictions for heroin, valium and cannabis.

She has been using drugs for more than half her life and committed crimes to feed her addictions.

After a spell in Greenock Prison said she said she did not change.

She added: "Here (at 218) I'm a better person, I'm the person I was supposed to be before the drugs."

Leeann, 25, was jailed for breach of the peace and other offences after becoming addicted to alcohol.

She said: "I was drinking everyday and starting to lose my family."

She went to Cornton Vale at 20 and survived because she "kept my head down".

Leeann has been living in the 218 Service for four months.

She said: "I'm talking to all my family now, I feel better about myself, my health is better.

"I'm scared about moving on and about housing but it's made me much stronger being in here. I'll be ready to go for a job when I'm out."

Josephine, 29, has been offending since she was 14. She is fighting addictions to alcohol and drugs.

She said: "When you go into prison you're forgotten about. You don't get any mental health issues dealt with. It's unfit to go on. It makes matters worse."

Josephine believes changing the approach to offending and expanding services like Turning Point's 218 will save lives and reduce offending.

She said: "I think there will be a lot less overdosing and people taking their own life. I think there will be a lot less offending because people will be getting support."

Service manager Sandra Mutter said prison was not working for women.

She said: "I think prisons are changing their approach and that's great to know that.

"But here at 218 Turning Point Scotland, we're the third sector and I think that works.

"We're not about punishment, we're about allowing people to take ownership for their own recovery.

"It's about what they will do for themselves. It's person centred.

"In the prison women might need to fit into a regime but here everyone's journey to recovery is different."

Mr Matheson said Scotland must take a more radical and ambitious approach to female offending.

He said: "I believe we should be investing in smaller regional and community-based custodial facilities across the country, rather than a large new prison for women.

"This approach would be more closely aligned with the vision set out by Dame Elish Angilioni t also demonstrates the Scottish Government's commitment to tackling inequalities."

rachel.loxton@eveningtimes.co.uk

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