UK: MoJ postpones plans to reduce female prison population

Strategy to cut numbers being jailed for non-violent offences was to be launched this month.
A multimillion pound government strategy to reduce the number of women being jailed for non-violent offences has been postponed, the Guardian can disclose.

Plans to set up community prisons for women and to launch a scheme that would provide support for female offenders were supposed to be announced this month. The Ministry of Justice has delayed finalisation of the strategy, which is now going to be rewritten.

Whitehall sources said the plans would have cost the department up to £30m and that spending pressures had prompted a review by David Gauke, the justice secretary.

Some capital spending on both men’s and women’s prisons is also being reviewed by the government, the sources said.

The decision has dismayed prison reform campaigners who have been waiting for several years for the female offenders’ strategy to be implemented.

Peter Dawson, the director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “It would beggar belief if the justice secretary really wanted to rethink a change in approach that everyone with knowledge of the issues supports.”

He added: “Support in the community offers better public protection at a fraction of the cost of prisons. Because women are disproportionately sent to prison for short periods as a result of non-violent offences, the dividend of a new approach could be realised quickly.”

There is broad political consensus that female offenders are some the most vulnerable members of society and often have complex needs. A significant number of such women suffer from mental health issues, substance use, trauma and abuse, homelessness, poor education and unemployment.

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