How Many Women?

In the first week of June 2002, there were 3,764 adult women and 619 girls under the age of 21 including children as young as 15 in prison - a total of 4383 women.

They make up about just over 6% of the total prison population. Between 1993 and 2000 the average population of women in prison rose by 115%, as against 42% for men.

The number of women in prison is now at an all-time high. Some of the reasons for the massive increase include:

• An increase in the number of women appearing before the courts
• An increase in the proportion of women receiving prison sentences
• An increase in the length of prison sentences imposed on women
• An increase in the number of women who commit drug offences which attract heavy penalties
• Inequalities in sentencing options and limited community penalties (such as community punishment orders or offending behaviour programmes run by the probation service) for women in some parts of the country
• A lack of co-ordination in the criminal justice system in regard to women, and a failure, until recently, to prioritise reducing offending by women.

Women on remand, waiting to be dealt with at court, make up a fifth of the female prison population, but women are less likely to be remanded in custody than men. They are held for an average of 36 days, but the period varies from a few days to months.

Two out of three women held in prison on remand (before their trial or sentence) do not receive a prison sentence when they go to court - they are either found not guilty or given a community sentence. Community sentences include community punishment orders, where offenders have to do unpaid community service work, fines, community rehabilitation orders, where offenders have to have regular contact with a probation officer and may attend a special course to help them stop offending, or electronic tagging.