NO POLICE IN OUR WOMEN’S BUILDING – Fill out the survey
Friday, June 9, 2023
The Women’s Building* that Peabody has promised to build on the site of Holloway Prison is at risk of housing probationary services.
Formerly the largest women’s prison in Europe, Holloway prison was a site of intense violence and harm. The Women’s Building was demanded by the community, to be a space for healing and support for people who have experienced violence at the hand of the state.
Embedding probationary services into the Women’s Building would be the complete opposite of what the community demanded. We do not want more policing of our communities. We do not want a prison under another name. We want a Women’s Building that works in the interests of us all.
We are asking people to fill out this survey from Peabody to make it clear that we want no probationary services in the Women’s building, that the building should provide specialised services for all survivors and that the building should be for women, non-binary and intersex people, and their children.
Please use our answers below as a guide, but use your own words.
GUIDE ANSWERS
QUESTION ONE
Choose ‘not important’ to the suggestion of ‘Probation referrals’.
Choose ‘other’ and in the text box specify that:
- We need specialist services for Black survivors and survivors of colour, LGBT* survivors (emphasise the need for all services to be fully trans-inclusive), D/disabled survivors, and women, intersex and non-binary people who were formerly incarcerated.
- There should also be a safe injection site/needle exchange.
- No services in the building should be linked to the Criminal Justice System.
- All services should be run by organisations that recognise the harms perpetuated by the Criminal Justice System.
- All services should be free at the point of use.
QUESTION TWO
Choose ‘not important’ for ‘commercial space’.
Choose ‘other’ and note that the space should also:
- Include a kitchen
- Be fully accessible
- Be free at the point of use
Note that there should be no commercial space in the building.
QUESTION FOUR
Choose ‘not relevant’ for ‘exclusive use for women only’ and then clarify in the text box below that it is important that the space is for women (trans and cis), non-binary and intersex people and their children.
Choose ‘other’ and note in the text box that:
- There must be no connection to the Criminal Justice System (including immigration enforcement).
- All services, including childcare, must be offered free at the point of use.
QUESTION FIVE
Strongly state that there must be no probation services in the building. Probation services are an arm of the Criminal Justice System that entrench state surveillance in the lives of formerly incarcerated people and set near impossible standards and codes of behaviour that they must adhere to. Probation services are another way that the Criminal Justice System cements itself in the lives of those currently and formerly imprisoned.
Probation services are not spaces for healing or support.
When the Community came together to demand a Women’s Building, the vision was that it would be a place of healing for those who have experienced violence at the hands of the state. It should work to rectify the pain and trauma inflicted by prisons and the Criminal Justice System. This can only happen if it is completely independent of these systems. No services that are linked to or co-operate with the Criminal Justice System should be housed in the building.
Services provided must not cooperate with the Home Office or Ministry of Justice in any capacity or deny access to individuals on the basis of immigration status.