Dr. Ciara O'Connell:

We need to consider staffing in women's prisons. It should be on a mixed-staffing basis but the high-contact points should be run by women. In areas where there are private interactions, it should be women running those positions. That is not currently the case. It used to be the case that people assigned to work in women's prisons were trained in gender. I think every prison staff member should be trained in gender because we all have genders. Gender-based violence should be understood across the spectrum. There is no training in gender sensitivity for prison officers, even when they are moved to a women's prison. I wanted to flag those key points.