Projects & Research

SmartJustice for Women

What’s the Problem?
In the last decade the women’s prison population has gone up by 33%. There are currently 4,267 women in prison.

Why are Women in Prison?
Almost two-thirds of women are in prison for non-violent offences

What kinds of women are in prison?
One in four women in prison were in local authority care as a child. Nearly 40% of women in prison left school before they were 16, almost one in 10 were 13 or younger.
Over half the women in prison have suffered domestic violence and one in three has experienced sexual abuse.

Why should I care?
This increased prison population has not increased public safety. 54% of women leaving prison are re-convicted within one year – for those serving sentences of less than 12 months this increases to 64%. For women who have served more than 10 previous custodial sentences the reoffending rate rises to 90%.

Who else is affected?
66% of women in prison have dependent children under 18. Each year it is estimated that more than 17,700 children are separated from their mother by imprisonment.

What should the government do?
It is widely accepted that the best way to reduce women's offending is in the community, by improving mental health services and tackling drug abuse.

We believe that reducing the women’s prison population through providing better alternatives to custody should be a government priority

What price women’s justice? We need your help

21/10/2011 12:18:00

Too many vulnerable women are unnecessarily sent to the UK’s prisons for non-violent offences, while local women’s centres – which have had better results in reducing offending – face an uncertain future. We are calling on our supporters to help put this right.

Click here for more information and to email your MP.

New facts and figures reveal many solutions to crime lie outside prison bars

29/06/2011 00:01:00

Community penalties are now outperforming short prison sentences, according to statistics released today from the latest edition of the Prison Reform Trust’s Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile. If government succeeds in reforming the justice system, building on the success of community measures including diversion into health treatment where appropriate, and holding prison numbers to an unavoidable minimum, it could deliver on its promise of a “rehabilitation revolution”.

Independent Taskforce calls for new cross-government strategy to divert women from crime

06/06/2011 00:01:00

Effective community sentences that command the confidence of the courts should cut women’s offending, reduce the women’s prison population and save the public purse, according to a report launched today by the independent Women’s Justice Taskforce.

"Disappointing" progress on reducing female custody, figures reveal

20/08/2010 14:13:00

Figures released by the Prison Reform Trust reveal disappointing progress in reducing the size of the female prison population despite cross-party endorsement for Baroness Corston’s review, published more than three years ago, which called for “radical change” in the treatment of women in the criminal justice system. The briefing, Women in Prison, coincides with a BBC Breakfast feature on the work of women’s centres which offer alternatives to custody for women offenders.

The pram in the cell

28/10/2008 14:25:00

Yesterday Jack Straw declared reclaiming the "unfashionable" concepts of punishment and reform would not herald a Victorian approach to crime. Yet, with the publication this week of figures showing the number of babies born in prison is soaring, you don't need to read Little Dorrit to feel there's already something very Dickensian about our prison system.

front cover of the briefing paper entitled women in prison

This briefing examines the rise in the number of women in prison, and shows it is all too easy for vulnerable women to slide off the political agenda and return to being a neglected minority.

Download the briefing here

lacking conviction: the rise of the women's remand population

This report presents clear evidence that some of our most vulnerable and socially excluded women are being failed by a range of agencies. It sets out an agenda for changes in policy and practice within and outside the criminal justice system.