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

[CohensDiamondTeeth]

Article in the Telegraph.

Instead lets release women from prison instead, and repurpose their prisons to house the men.

It sounds like an excellent idea to me!

Repurpose women’s prisons for men, campaigners tell Andy Burnham

I suppose you could put the least violent 3,500 male criminals into the formerly female estate. It would only make a tiny dent in the problem, though.

I wish were investing more in the prison system, building much nicer facilities with all the staffing, training and therapeutic services HMP keeps forlornly requesting. It would cost a lot but be much more likely to result in reformed crims.

Yes the prison mentioned in the article would only free up a relatively small amount of spaces.

Still, that's that number of violent male offenders prevented from early release where they will likely reoffend weighed against that number of non-violent female offenders being given early release from over harsh sentencing.

It does seem very unfair that women commit very little serious crime and hardly any violent crime, and yet have to serve their whole sentences. Whilst predatory and violent men are let out early just because there are so many of them the prison system can’t cope with the numbers.

No id rather criminals were treated the same regardless of their sex. If a woman is released because her sentence was for not paying her council tax then I think a man who committed the same offence should also be released just like I think Rose West shouldn't be released.

Why do you want to compare violent men with non violent women as if they are the equivalent.

Let's release all the people in prison for non violent non sexual offences out. Or pick a category if crime not the sex of the offender.

Yes basing these things on sex is inherently unfair.

The probation service also needs more support.

How many women have you heard of who beat up their partner? And how many men who beat up theirs?
She's saying that if you're going to release prisoners, release the less-violent ones and put the violent ones in there instead.

Yes I think they should also be classed as violent.

Did I disagree with that? You seem to miss that men are also in prison for non violent offences and women are in for violent offences. No problems with category of crime being used but not assuming all male prisoners are violent and women never are.

I agree that a lot of petty crime that results in prison sentences like non payment of council tax is ridiculous, and yes that sort of low level, non-violent, often borne of poverty "crime" should be treated the same regardless of sex.

I think a lot could be done with rehabilitation and support for lots of those sorts of crimes for both sexes. I'd like to see a lot more done in the way of prevention, but I wouldn't even know where to start that's such a multi-armed behemoth task, so it's just wishful thinking on my part.

But you are ignoring the important facts that women are often imprisoned for these sort of petty non-violent crimes when men often just aren't. The system is often sexist and weighed against women when it comes to crimes like that.

I'm not comparing violent male offenders with non-violent female offenders at all. I'm saying there's a huge difference between them.

You're the one who seems to be saying you'd rather the more likely to reoffend violent male offenders get early release than see non-violent female offenders who have been shown able to become rehabilitated, and have those violent male offenders serve their sentence in a different prison... because somehow you see that as the equality women were asking for?

Edited to add a couple of "often"s because someone is going to say I said men never get put in prison for that sort of crime, and of course they do, just not at the same rate as women.

No one has said that.

Your first comment seemed to say "all women" do you actually mean "non violent women"?

Sorry no. To clarify, I definitely do not think that all women offenders should be released.

Some women are incredibly violent, a very small number have even committed sexual crimes, and some of those were against children.

Some women absolutely should be in prison, and they should serve out their sentences in full for their crimes.

I meant the non-violent, petty crime committing, vulnerable because they were pushed into crime by addiction, poverty, or coerced by violent men, overly harshly punished female prisoners who were talked about in the article.

I don't think women should get a free pass because they are female, that would be insane as well as sexist! Ha ha!

I think that my OP could have been better worded.

I assumed that everyone who read the article would understand that I was talking about the non-violent female prisoners we have talked about in this thread.

It didn't even cross my mind that it could be read as a suggestion that we give all female prisoners a get out of jail free card.

Leg tracker thingy?? Confined to house.

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...

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

Exactly release all non violent women with tags

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

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.

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.

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!?)

I liked @GarlicEverywhere's suggestion that the most violent male prisoners get kept in the male prisons they are in, and to reshuffle so the male prisoners who are least likely to reoffend, least violent, and most likely to respect their placement and not abuse it are put in the repurposed female estate.

I agree on principle it sounds great, I agree there are lots of things to consider. @BettyFilous made a really good point in her posts about the female prisoners who should be in prison and their rights, and those of their families if they are moved even further away.

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.

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?