She sat down with two former inmates only identified by their first names – Sam, who left the prison six weeks ago with her toddler son after serving a 14-month sentence for an undisclosed offence and Donna, who was 30 weeks pregnant when she began an 11-month sentence and gave birth to a daughter in prison.
Princess of Wales ‘wolf whistled’ by prisoners on women’s prison visit The Princess of Wales made the promotion of early years development of children one of the key elements of her public work.
When Kate chatted with staff from the mother and baby unit, she asked about its effects on reoffending, suggesting it was “massive”, and was told normal reoffending rates for women were around 70 per cent but this reduced to just 12 per cent with those receiving parental support.
Amanda Taylor, operational director of children’s services at Action for Children, said: “Given the challenges the mums are going through, it is really important to give the babies the very best start in life.
Kate, on a visit to mothers locked up in HMP Styal, a women’s prison in Cheshire, endured shouts of “we need more funding” and “tell them the truth” as well as loud wolf-whistles and cat-calls from inmates leaning out of their cell windows.
