Members' Section

Women in prison

Some facts and figures

As of 2 January 2009, there were 4,199 women held in custody.

The female prison population has increased by 30% over the last decade, with 3,120 women in prison at the end of June 1998.

Nearly a third of all women in prison in 2007 had no previous convictions; more than double the figure for men.

There was a 39% increase in the number of women remanded into custody between 1997 and 2007, from 5,124 to 7,136.

Our Prison Watch pages has weekly figures for numbers of adults and children in custody, including a breakdown by gender.

The most recent statement made by the Howard League for Penal Reform, was for a debate in the House of Lords, in January 2009. It includes more statistics relating to women in custody, and further information on the Corston Review and the SP Inquiry, which are mentioned below. It can be downloaded here.

Reports and Publications

The Howard League for Penal Reform has produced a number of reports on the issue of women in the criminal justice system. More information on these can be found here.

We also have a number of reports available to download:

Lost Inside: the imprisonment of teenage girls (1997) Report of the Howard League Inquiry into the use of prison custody for girls aged under 18. download

Prison Mother and Baby Units (1995) briefing paper download

The Corston Review

In March 2007, the Home Office published a review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system by Baroness Corston, which made 43 recommendations to instigate a radical change in the way women are treated throughout the criminal justice system.

The Corston review recommended that the only women who should be in custody are those very few that commit serious and violent crimes and who present a threat to the public. For the vast majority of women in the criminal justice system, solutions in the community would be more appropriate. The government responded to this review in December 2007, with progress reports updating on meeting recommendations published in June and December 2008.

Useful links to the Corston report and the government's responses:

The Corston report on meeting the needs of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system, March 2007

The government's response to the Corston report, December 2007

Delivering the government's response to Corston - the first progress report, June 2008

Delivering the government's response to Corston - the second progress report, December 2008

The SP inquiry

The Howard League for Penal Reform is currently involved in a public inquiry into the treatment and conditions of a long-standing client, ‘SP’ during her two years in custody. The SP inquiry is now being conducted on the basis that SP’s life threatening self-harm whilst in prison service custody triggered the state’s investigative obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The inquiry provides a vital opportunity to examine the issues surrounding mental health and self-harm in custody, and the imprisonment of women and children. The investigation will also be unique as SP is alive and able to give evidence at her own public inquiry – as other Article 2 inquiries into ‘near-deaths’ in custody have subjects who survived but were incapacitated after attempting to take their own lives.

Watch a film by Channel 4

More information on the SP case can be found here.

The Howard League online

Women in prison