Mr. Gary Broderick:

A mother who is locked away is separated from her child and the child is separated from the mother. That just adds to the trauma that can be in place in prison. What we are asking to be considered is that there is no need for all of that to be happening. Surely we can come up with better, non-custodial ways to punish the wrongdoing that society has a right to call out. We are talking with the Probation Service at the moment to try to come up with new ideas, such as women coming to SAOL rather than being imprisoned so that they can be punished by us.