Ripon House Approved Premises for Women

AMAZING DIFFERENCE …
Success rate more than doubled!

“An amazing difference!”, that’s how one recent visitor described the changes at Ripon House since it became a specialist female provision.
It’s not only that the place now looks like a page from an Ikea catalogue and that the bedrooms have been upgraded with laminate flooring, personal safes and their own washbasins. The place just feels much calmer and happier. Things have changed to meet the needs of women. Even the rules are different. Most residents now keep their own medication in their rooms and they can bring in their own portable TV.
Staff really appreciate the problems faced by women and do all they can to help with things like family contact, financial problems, housing and jobs.
The changes made at Ripon House have been reflected in the results. The success rate has more than doubled since it became single sex. More women than ever are getting clean from drugs and more are being helped to find good move on accommodation.
Unfortunately reputations, especially bad ones, take time to change. When it was a mixed hostel, Ripon House found itself with a reputation for quick breaches and second rate accommodation. “I was told by a prison officer that it was a dump” said one resident “but I now realise that they are only repeating what they have heard from long ago. If they came and saw the place today, they wouldn’t say that.”
One resident was so put off coming to Ripon House by what she had heard in prison that she went on the run. After being recalled and serving extra time she arrived on her second release and soon regretted the time she had lost by listening to prison gossip.
“We believe everyone can change for the better and that includes us.” says manager Rod Pickin.