We have an historic opportunity to stop setting women in prison up to fail. We cannot miss it

A major independent sentencing review presents a watershed opportunity for women’s justice. Among some of the more headline-grabbing proposals, there’s something more radical quietly on the table: a genuine chance to stop failing women in the criminal justice system.

The government has accepted several of the review’s recommendations, including moving away from short prison sentences in favour of community-based alternatives. There’s also a welcome recognition of the realities women face, including proposals to: defer sentences for pregnant women; review the assault on emergency worker law that disproportionately affects women; and invest in women’s centres and the third sector – all pointing in the right direction.

For too long, the criminal justice system has set women up to fail. Women make up just 4% of the prison population, yet their offences are, more often than not, the result of poverty, domestic abuse, homelessness, mental ill-health, and trauma. Prison only deepens these problems.

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At Women in Prison’s centres and hubs, we work with women every day who have been through huge amounts of hardship and trauma, and whose lives have been derailed by criminalisation.

Meet Natasha, for example. After going through trauma in her childhood, she suffered with significant mental health problems, turned to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism, and became a full-time carer to her mum. These circumstances drew her into contact with the justice system. She often tells me: “I only got the help I needed after I was convicted. If I’d had it earlier, I don’t think I would’ve ended up there.”

Natasha’s experience is painfully common. But the sentencing review, which has largely been accepted by the government, offers hope for change, starting with a clear message that prison should be an absolute last resort for women. This is something Women in Prison has campaigned for, alongside allies and partners, for decades because prison is unsafe, inappropriate, and ineffective for women.

The facts are stark: Nearly 60% of women in contact with the justice system have experienced domestic abuse. Self-harm in women’s prisons is at record levels. Many women leave prison with worse mental health, in debt, and without safe or suitable accommodation to go to.

We need to stop pretending that prison is a safe place for women. It is not.

The Review recommends a significant shift away from harmful, ineffective short sentences, which until now have meant women with offences driven by challenges like mental ill-health and poverty could lose everything – their housing, their employment – even their children.  

The alternative? Community sentences that mean women can stay at home, with their families and access support for the root causes of their offending.

Natasha served a community sentence. “My sentence in the community wasn’t perfect,” she told me. “The court didn’t consider my caring responsibilities for my mum. But if I’d been sent to prison, I could have lost my home, my daughter would’ve been affected, and I honestly don’t know if my mum would still be alive. Being in the community meant I could access real support…build a meaningful life and not reoffend.”

She is not alone. Women have too often been imprisoned for acts of survival, like shoplifting to feed their children, breaching orders linked to abusive relationships, or committing offences closely tied to trauma. It is clear that women need support to address the root causes of offending, not a sentence that compounds them.

The Ministry of Justice’s own evidence is clear: people given community orders are less likely to reoffend than those sentenced to short prison terms. But that success only comes when community alternatives are properly resourced, trauma-informed, and tailored to the realities of women’s lives, including accounting for caring responsibilities, mental health needs, and histories of abuse.

This is why the sentencing review’s call to avoid short sentences is so significant for women. But it must be implemented with care. We must not see “up tariffing”—where judges, in the absence of short sentences, hand down longer ones instead. That would be a dangerous step backward. Instead, we must see a bold, sustained investment in holistic, community-based services that work with – not against – women.

At Women in Prison, we walk alongside women every day who are trying to rebuild their lives in the face of multiple disadvantages. When women are supported in the community, they are not only more likely to not offend again, but they are also more likely to be able to rebuild their lives.

These recommendations are not just technical adjustments to sentencing policy. They represent a fundamental shift in how we choose to respond to women who encounter the justice system. We can choose to keep failing them—or we can choose to act on the opportunity for better justice. Let’s not let it slip away.

Sonya Ruparel is CEO of Women in Prison.

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