Volunteers to watch over courts' treatment of women

Several of Scotland's busiest courts are to be monitored by volunteers as part of a campaign to change the way women are treated by the justice system, the Herald reports today.

From next month Justice for Women, a new pressure group, will track proceedings in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Perth sheriff courts, along with either Dundee or Aberdeen, in an attempt to throw light on the kind of sentences women receive, the consideration given to alternatives to custody, and the impact on children and other family members.

They will also scrutinise facilites for women, after a prisons inspectorate report this week described remand conditions at Glasgow Sheriff Court as "degrading and inhumane" (click here for news item).

Spokesperson Maggie Mellon said the group would be looking to inform itself and the public, watching out for short sentences being imposed for offences such as fine default, and "gathering information and stories about the injustice and crazy economics of imprisonment".