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UK: Six more prisons to be provided for women

Times, The (UK)

Wednesday 05 Apr 2000


Subj: UK: Six more prisons to be provided for women
Date: 5 Apr, 2000
Source: Times, The (UK)


Six more prisons to be provided for women
BY RICHARD FORD, HOME CORRESPONDENT

THREE extra jails are to be built to deal with the rising
female prison population, which could reach 5,000 within
seven years.

They will be in addition to the conversion by the Prison
Service of three male prisons into premises for women. The
disclosure that the number of places for women is to rise by
a third over the next two years came as penal reformers
condemned the "needless" imprisonment of women.

Lord Hurd of Westwell, chairman of the Prison Reform Trust,
said: "Women in prison are people who the system has failed
time and time again. Nearly half of them have been abused,
over 40 per cent have self-harmed or attempted suicide, and
20 per cent have spent time in local authority care."

A total of 3,349 prisoners were in the 16 women's jails last
night, an increase of 3 per cent in the ten months to the
end of last month. The rise in the male prison population
over the same period was 0.3 per cent, to 61,740.

The rise in the number of women being sent to jail shows no
sign of slowing and two sets of population projections
estimate it could reach 4,500 or 5,000 by 2007.

The vast majority of women sentenced to imprisonment are
convicted of non-violent offences. At the end of February,
17 per cent of the 2,590 sentenced women had been convicted
of violence against the person, 7 per cent robbery, 6 per
cent burglary, 18 per cent theft and handling, 5 per cent
fraud and forgery, 36 per cent drug offences, 2 per cent
motoring and 3 per cent other offences.

A report by the Prison Reform Trust calls for the 16
existing women's prisons to be replaced by a nationwide
network of small units where women could be held nearer
their homes.


 

 

 

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