Melanie Woodcock from Bridgend was sentenced to 81 days in prison for being in debt to her council. A single mother, she had lost her job and was unable to pay her council tax arrears.
Melanie put her time behind bars to good use, by reading up about legal opinions coming from academics, in cases such as hers. She went to the High Court where the judges ruled that she had been imprisoned unlawfully.
The Welsh government have announced that Welsh councils have been using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It is a sledgehammer that affects women disproportionately. Welsh councils won't be sending debtors to prison anymore.
There are around 70 council tax debtors in prison in England, mostly women. (Scotland and Northern Ireland don't imprison debtors to councils.) Let's hope that the English councils get their act together before separating families, disrupting households that are already under stress, and punishing poverty.
A round of applause for Melanie Woodcock 
and her lawyers
www.criminalappeals.org.uk/news/2018/11/6/wales-trailblazes-as-it-ends-prison-sentences-for-council-tax-debts-while-england-lags-behind