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Send fewer women to jail to make room for male inmates, says former Justice Secretary
18 February 2025, 00:15 | Updated: 18 February 2025, 00:19
The head of the independent sentencing review has told LBC he wants to see some women’s prisons being shut down and used to house male inmates instead.
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Former justice secretary David Gauke says he believes a change to sentencing, to tackle the causes of crime, could see more female offenders handed community orders instead of being locked up.
During a visit to HMP New Hall in Wakefield, he told us “It’s not soft justice, it’s effective justice.
“The prison population has essentially doubled over the past 30 years, we’re already the one in Europe that locks most people up
“We’ve got to be pragmatic here and say ‘I want there to be less crime and I want there to be fewer victims, what is the best way to use our resources to stop people from offending?’
“Very often addressing the causes of crime will be effective.”
The visit came ahead of the first part of the sentencing review report being published, in which ministers have been warned that the population crisis in jails has been driven by a political push to look ‘tough on crime’.
It said longer prison sentences have been a ‘knee jerk’ response by successive governments to show action, despite an overall decline in crime rates since the mid-1990s.
The review said: “While the use of custody has been increasing, England and Wales have experienced a decline in the use of certain non-custodial sentences, most notably community orders.”
The analysis also found England and Wales has one of the highest prison population rates in western Europe.
LBC joined Mr Gauke as he met inmates at New Hall Prison last week, during which he said he was “concerned” about the increasing number of offenders being held in prison on recall, in some cases for just 28 days.
One inmate, Emma, said she was brought back in after she “stupidly” relapsed on her drug use and stole £13 worth of goods from a shop.
“After that, I sorted myself out, I got off drugs and I was doing well,” she said, “and then they recalled me for the one shop theft.
“It means I've lost my house, my benefits, my drug worker. I've got to start everything from the beginning again.”
David Gauke told LBC: “Okay, maybe they have committed a minor offence, but that has often been as a consequence of them not getting the support that they need.
“We need to make sure that when people leave prison, they’re not in a position where they’re very very likely to commit another crime.”
Asked if he wanted to see women’s prisons being closed, Mr Gauke said: “I would want to see the female estate reduced and I think there is the opportunity to do that.
“If that happens, there may well be an opportunity to close a women’s prison, potentially repurpose it to be a men’s prison but we’re not there yet.”
The Government launched the sentencing review to consider options to hand offenders tougher punishments outside of prison as part of efforts to ease overcrowding in October last year.
It comes after the Government began freeing thousands of inmates early in September 2024, in order to curb jail overcrowding in England and Wales by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences which some prisoners must serve behind bars from 50% to 40%.
