SAVE THE DATE
A summit on alternatives to female custody
Hosted by the Worshipful Company of Weavers and managed by Clinks
30 January 2025, Church House, Westminster, London
In 2030 The Worshipful Company of Weavers, the oldest of the City of London’s livery companies, will be 900 years old. In 2024 the Company also celebrates 50 years of support for criminal justice charities working with people in prison and in the community upon release. To mark both these milestones the Company intends to add its support to halt the cycle of women being sentenced to prison which is known to lead to higher reoffending rates, and greater family breakdown. The Company wishes to ensure more effective community interventions are available.
The Ministry of Justice’s 2018 Female Offender Strategy recognises the ineffectiveness of short sentences and seeks to reduce their use, along with the need to reduce the population of women in prison.
To further that aim the Weavers’, supported by Clinks, will host a summit in central London on 30th January 2025 that brings together key people to discuss what interventions are necessary to end the imprisonment of women and so deliver improved outcomes. This event targets senior strategic leaders and is by invitation only.
Looking towards 2030, the summit will be a starting point for creating connections and collaborations resulting in long-term partnerships for change. We want senior leaders in the women’s sector to ask questions and pose challenges, using the opportunity to build strong foundations for a bold new approach.
We would like you to be a part of this thinking.
To find out more please email weavers@clinks.org.
At the summit the Weavers Company, supported by Clinks, will detail a competition to establish a consortium to advise the Company on a specific intervention that will shape and drive change in the way that the criminal justice system responds to women’s rehabilitation whilst also reducing the use of ineffective custody. The successful consortium will work with the Company shaping and detailing the intervention prior to launch by their 900 year anniversary in 2030. £35,000 will be available to the successful consortia. Details of what is required and how to enter the competition will be made available later in 2024.
This ambitious programme of work continues the Weavers’ commitment to criminal and social justice over the last fifty years. It is rooted in the knowledge that you and others are committed to the ideal of radically reducing the use of prison for women and changing what justice looks and feels like for women. And our belief is that if we create something together we will have a far greater chance of success.
Please save the summit date and look out for your invitation to join us in this exciting new venture.
Kind regards
William Makower, Chair, Weavers’ Company Charity
Jackie Lowthian
Women’s Network Coordinator
Clinks
07908 057793
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Postal address: Clinks, 82A James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Suffolk, IP28 7DE
Registered charity no 1074546 and company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales no 3562176