Don't release violent male offenders, repurpose women's prisons for them instead

Eh?! Where have I said that?!

I have a strong suspicion that for a significant number of women in prison, there is a man ‘behind’ their crimes (either getting them addicted to drugs, coercion, domestic abuse, etc.). Haven’t got any stats but ChatGPT agrees with me.

Otherwise, it’s an excellent idea to concentrate on getting more women out of prison so their spaces can be used for dangerous men.

Yeah - they don’t commit the same crimes. Women end up inside for lesser offences. Like not having a TV Licence.

So you agree it depends on what they did not their sex.

Which woman? Rose West maybe. Some women or most women but to say every woman prisoner is less dangerous than every male prisoner is ridiculous.

As a group but not as individuals or do you think all men are in for serious violent crimes and women are never in for serious violent crimes?

You've also get to remember that we imprison people to protect others.

A woman who has committed a crime is far less dangerous than the male equivalent. They are less likely to try to reoffend. if they do, they are less physically able to cause harm.

The number of women in prison at any one time should be in the double figures.

That would free up around 5% extra capacity for the male estate. That's not transformative, but would make a real difference.

Do show me where I said I'd rather violent men were released rather than non violent women. You can't can you because I haven't said that. I think if we need to let people out early it should depend on what they did not their sex.

Did you deliberately make that up or was it a mistake?

Yes. I didn't mean to imply that ALL women prisoners should be released above purely on the basis of their sex, but it is very clear than many are simply in for theft, shoplifting and non-payment of TV licence fines etc. I think many of the 3500 odd women who are not there for violent offences could, and should, be releasd. As far as I can see this numbers about 2500 who might be released - the remaining 1000 are guilty of more serious and violent crime (assault and battery, assault of emergency workers, severe violence/homicide and child neglect/cruelty).

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/women-and-the-criminal-justice-system-2023/statistics-on-women-and-the-criminal-justice-system-2023-html

IF a woman commits the same crime as a man.

Male and female prisoners have very different offending profiles.

Prison population by offence on p25 and by sex on p23, ‘Justice in Numbers Pocket’ book pub July 2026 by Ministry of Justice?

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a4fa9171228eb26a4cab6d5/JiN_Pocketbook_2026-07-09.pdf

All of which might sound ok in theory. But a quick google tells me that female prisoners make up between 4 and 7 percent of the prison population. The maths doesn’t work.

And even if there was numerical capacity - it’s exactly the kind of public sector project that ends up with higher costs and unintended consequences.

Your stats don’t line up with the governments. (Linked above) though?

They are suggesting that non violent women are released, then by moving the women into fewer prisons we would free up an entire prison for the least dangerous male prisoners to move into.

Men who should be in prison but are not violent. Maybe they are men towards the end of their sentence, maybe older men, maybe men who have had years of good behaviour.

Essentially the women's prison would become a new low security prison, freeing up spaces in the other men's prisons for higher security offenders.

There seems to be something of a disconnect between what plenty of posters want to tell us women are in prison for and what the government statistics posted above actually say. Why is this?

Big no to this from me.

Are people really suggesting that those violent male criminals are housed in the female estate?

Nice distraction from Reform’s financial irregularities though. Perhaps Nigel and Richard are thinking of their futures.

We need to consider what prison is for. To keep violent people away from the public? Yes I think we would all agree?

After that we need to think more carefully than we have so far about what we want imprisoning people to achieve. Maybe imprisoning people for petty, non violent crime is counter productive ( and extremely expensive) as even a very short sentence may well mean that they lose their jobs eg. So they will be encouraged to recommit the very crimes ( eg shoplifting ) that they were imprisoned for.

Also we need to weigh the proportionality eg in separating a mother from her (especially young) children - causing another generation of damaged people?

We need to think of a system which would enable offenders to help right the wrongs they have done ( working to pay compensation? Other suggestions?) rather than imprisoning them to the detriment of the very people who need recompense.

Maybe a system that allows them to live at home but work to help pay off their debts to society/those they have damaged etc. The latter would surely save us ( the tax payers ) a fortune for housing offenders who are not violent / reducing the cost of prison officers/ need to keep building more prisons etc.

Even in some 'primitive' societies of the early Middle Ages ( eg Ireland and other European countries) compensation was considered a basis to right a crime in most instances. ( They did believe close relatives had to cough up too but that would not be reasonable to us!?)

Agree with this. Acc to womeninprison.org.uk : Most women in UK prisons are serving short sentences for non-violent, acquisitive crimes. The most common offences are theft (particularly shoplifting), fraud, and summary non-motoring offences like TV licence evasion. Many of these individuals have highly vulnerable backgrounds, with the majority reporting mental health issues and histories of domestic or sexual abuse

3500 women are in the estate - 4% of total. Not a huge amount, given there are nearly 16,000 male sex offenders alone currently serving sentences.

Most of those women should not be serving a custodial sentence at all - they should have been given community service order and referred for counselling (psychological and debt management) and monitored by social services (many will be mothers). Not saying they should get criminal records, just that prison is not the answer. If freeing those 3500 spaces means that 3500 fewer rape gang and serial rapists are released, I’m all for it. And all the trans women can just get over themselves in a private wing for men who wear dresses.

I’d agree with this. I think there’s many more appropriate ways of punishing people for crimes against property. I’m not sure folk who steal learn much from a year behind bars except perhaps how to be better criminals. At an average cost of £40k per year, per prisoner its money thst could be put into more effective rehabilitation.

I sourced this from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2025 and https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69f0c7400bb62e692c5d6dae/prison-population-31-Mar-2026.ods

I don't disagree with the principal - but I am not sure we are going to free up a huge amount of prison spaces for males when the stats look like this AND the overall population for female prisoners is so low?

Not to mention, you'd need to clear out an entire female prison, in order to put males there

And if you are only letting out the 15% or so who did lesser offences, that means emptying a low security prison - and my definition, putting dangerous men who are at a higher risk of trying to escape?

I don;t think this adds up

Exactly release all non violent women with tags

Of course. That’s why I said some women need to be in prison & this proposal needs to consider the impact on them too.

I've thought this for years. Ever since I visited a women's prison and the vast, vast majority of women seemed lovely and their crimes were very low-level and probably not things they would have done at all, were it not for external factors – the relationship they were in, the upbringing they'd had, lack of money etc. And separating them from their kids was heartbreaking and highly destabilising for that family. They'd benefit far more from support for things like drugs and stability ie community service and then support into a workplace.

And yes, I know some women do commit violent crimes and should be in prison – that should be one of the few reasons for incarcerating women, in my view, as statistically most of us do not pose any kind of violent or physical threat to others.

As long as the women not going to prison are actually women...

Leg tracker thingy?? Confined to house.