Wood’s World

The Josef Fritzl trial brought nothing but sympathy for his abused children. But what about all the other unreported cases of children who are abused?

The trial of Josef Fritzel, the man who imprisoned and abused his daughter Elisabeth, was in the news when I was writing this article. Quite rightly people are appalled and indignant about cases of abuse that hit the headlines. But what if Elisabeth or her children have mental health problems, self-harm, use drugs or alcohol or display ‘unacceptable’ behaviour – will we tut and say they should be punished or will we say it’s not surprising that they’re having difficulties? Won’t we expect them to receive the right care, support and understanding?

But what about all those children who are abused who do not come to the attention of the public. They are very damaged by abuse: sexual, physical or psychological, throughout their childhood. Many grow up with mental health problems or self-harm or they use drugs and alcohol or commit low level crime or have a combination of all these issues. They may be labelled personality disordered. Yet isn’t it understandable if their ability to relate with others is sometimes impaired? They’ve been let down and emotionally traumatised at times in their life when they should have been secure and free to develop into confident people. We should be just as indignant about the abuse that these people have suffered. Yet what happens all too often in reality? The truth is that many end up in prison.

Many ‘survivors’ of abuse are excluded from mainstream services either because the variety or combination of issues they have do not fit into the criteria of segregated services or because their ‘challenging behaviour’ is too uncomfortable. They are left fighting against the odds and are consistently let down.

“Prisons are all too often used as repositories for those who are neglected and rejected by other services in the community.” (pg 6, SCMH, 2008)

Wouldn’t we be shocked if that happened to Elisabeth and her children because there was a failure to give them the right services?

“There are many women in prison, either on remand or serving sentences for minor, non-violent offences, for whom prison is both disproportionate and inappropriate. Many of them suffer poor physical and mental health or substance abuse or both. Large numbers have endured violent or sexual abuse or had chaotic childhoods. Many have been in care. I have concluded that we are rightly exercised about paedophiles, but seem to have little sympathy, understanding or interest in those who have been their victims, many of whom end up in prison.” (pg i , Corston, 2007)

The following is a number of statistics about the prison population in the UK:

• 72% of men, 70% women have two or more mental health ‘disorders’
• 62% of men, 57% women have been diagnosed with personality disorder
• 66% of men, 55% of women have used drugs
• 63% of men and 39% women are ‘hazardous’ drinkers
• 50% of women, 25% men have suffered domestic violence
• 1 in 3 women have experienced sexual abuse
• 15,800 self harm incidents in 2008, 54% by women who are only 5% of prison population
• 30% of young women (18-20 yrs) have been sexually abused
• 71% have been in care
• 69% harm themselves
• 2 out of 5 girls, 1 out of 4 boys (12-17 years) have suffered violence at home
• 1 in 3 girls, 1 in 20 boys have experienced sexual abuse

Source (pdf)

Given that 1 in 4 people in prison have spent time in local authority care as a child, 40% of women in prison left school before the age of 16 and 1 in 10 were 13 or younger, 30% of women have had psychiatric admission before going to prison, it begs the question - why did the care system, school and mental health services fail to help them?

Three quarters of people with mental health problems leave prison with no follow-up care. The majority are even worse off than when they went in: they are left homeless, jobless, estranged from their families, in debt and their children have been taken into care.

People who have had a life time of experiences that drain their self-esteem and sense of self-worth are treated in ways that compound this. They are abused people who are abused again by the ‘system’. What kind of society countenances distressed people who are much more likely to harm themselves than the ‘public’ being put into a prison environment?

Over the years I’ve had service users tell me they have been abused. I’ve asked them if their mental health workers know and they invariably say “No, I’ve never been asked.” How can people be given the most useful support if something that more often than not has had a very profound effect on them goes unrecognised? People should be asked about their experiences. They may choose not to talk about them but they need to be given the opportunity. Practitioners need to be equipped to know what to do to support people who disclose abuse so that they are not afraid to ask the questions. Integrated services should be available that prevent people falling through the gaps.

Let’s stop punishing people who have been abused and let’s stop discriminating against them because sometimes the way they cope is uncomfortable. Let’s start getting indignant on their behalf and show them respect for surviving.

This article is now featured at abyss2hope.

Written for woods-world.com by Tina Braithwaite

References:

Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile, Prison Reform Trust, Dec 2008
Corston, B (2007), The Corston Report: A Review of Women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system, Home Office
Durcan, G (2008), From the Inside: Experiences of Prison Mental Health Care, SCMH