Exclusive: ‘In lots of women’s prisons, you will come off remand and be sentenced and be put on a wing among prisoners with sentences that vary from a month to longer,’ woman serving life sentence says
When a parent is doing time, time with their kids becomes a precious resource. Plans for apartments at HMP Foston won’t be the shake-up the justice system needs
MINISTERS’ plans to create 500 new prison places for women face mounting opposition following the launch of a new campaign against the move.
In January, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that it would build hundreds of new cells despite promises to reduce the number of women in custody.
The MoJ claimed that there was a need for extra places due to an expected increase in investigations and prosecutions as 20,000 more police officers are recruited.
But campaign group Women in Prison argued that the plans “will only shatter more lives and unnecessarily separate families.”
Launching the campaign (https://campaigns.womeninprison.org.uk/stopthe500?utm source=twitter) this week, the group highlighted the damage that incarceration does to women, with recent figures showing record levels of self-harm among female inmates.