Shabana Mahmood stated that “prison isn’t working” for women during her speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Tuesday. She called the facilities “desperate places” that are “hurting mothers and breaking homes.”
A new women’s justice board headed by a minister will be established by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to address the problem. The board’s goal is to “reduce the number of women going to prison, with the ultimate ambition of having fewer women’s prisons.”
It will release its plan in the spring of the next year, with an initial emphasis on assisting women in avoiding the criminal court system when appropriate and enhancing.
Ms. Mahmood made reference to a 2007 Labour Party review on women and the criminal justice system, saying, “It was clear then and it’s clear now that if we change how we treat women in prison, we cut crime, we keep families together, and we end the harm that passes from one generation to the next.”
Approximately two-thirds of the 3,440 women incarcerated in England and Wales as of right now have not committed violent crimes, an increase from the average of 3,183 in 2021.
The percentage of inmates who claim having experienced domestic violence is over 50%, and the rate of self-harm is eight times higher than in jails for males.
