United Kingdom: female prison reform undermined by short custodial sentences

An over-reliance on short custodial sentences is undermining government reforms for female offenders, a campaign group has said.

Published on International Women’s Day, the Prison Reform Trust report said Scotland continues to have one of the highest rates of women’s imprisonment in northern Europe, with seven in prison for every 100,000 women.

The trust believes imprisonment can compound problems and the services women need to turn their lives around “often lie outside prison walls”.

Following a 2015 report by former Lord Advocate Dame Elish Angiolini QC, the Scottish Government plans to reform the system by replacing the country’s only all-female prison, Cornton Vale, with a smaller jail for long-term prisoners and five small “community-based custodial units” in different parts of Scotland for shorter sentences.

The Prison Reform Trust said there is an over-reliance on remand and short jail sentences, with more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of women sentenced to custody in 2015-16 given six months or less.

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