Women in the North are seven times more likely to be imprisoned

Amid concerns that the number of women going to jail could rise by more than 30 per cent in the next five years, it has emerged that women in Wales or the North are up to seven times more likely to be jailed than those in the south of England

 

Based on official data the research by the Prison Reform Trust (PRT) reveals that most women are jailed for low-level, non-violent crimes that merit under a year in prison, including failure to pay TV licence fee fines.

 

However the report said that in some areas the failure of courts, police, and probation services to introduce measures to divert them from jail into rehabilitation has led to chances of being sent to prison becoming much higher in different areas of the country. 

 

PRT director Peter Dawson said, "It's a postcode lottery and the majority of women sent to prison are still being sent there for non-violent offences to serve sentences of less than one year. "These sentences can have a devastating impact on women and their children without doing anything to address the causes of offending."

 

Topping the league table was South Wales where the number of women jailed was 62 per 100,000. This area was followed by Cleveland (43 per 100,000), Nottinghamshire (39 per 100,000), West Midlands (36 per 100,000), Merseyside (36 per 100,000), Cumbria (35 per 100,000), Cheshire (34 per 100,000), Humberside (34 per 100,000), West Yorkshire (33 per 100,000) and North Wales (31 per 100,000).

 

In contrast, at the bottom of the table, was Surrey with just 9 per 100,000 women jailed, followed by Suffolk (12 per 100,000), Bedfordshire (12 per 100,000), Sussex (12 per 100,000), Hertfordshire (14 per 100,000), Devon and Cornwall (14 per 100,000), Gloucestershire (14 per 100,000), Durham (16 per 100,000), Hampshire (16 per 100,000) and Wiltshire, Thames Valley, and Gwent (each with 17 per 100,000).

 

The number of women jailed nationally has fallen by 21 per cent since 2014 following the introduction of the Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) female offender strategy in 2018. Two of the biggest forces, whose areas are amongst those which introduced new blueprints to steer women away from prison, have seen resulting sharp falls in the number jailed, with a 44 per cent drop in Greater Manchester, and 32 per cent fall for the Metropolitan Police. 

 

However, the latest MoJ projections suggest this trend could be reversed as numbers of women in prison are predicted to climb from the current figure of just over 3,200, to 4,500 by 2026.

 

 

The Johnson Partnership

Derby Crime Solicitors