Women prisoners ‘much more violent than male inmates’

Female prisoners are much more violent than men in jails, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures.

The rate of assaults in female jails rose by 21 per cent last year, to 419 per 1,000 women prisoners - the highest since records began more than 20 years ago.

This was 65 per cent higher than the rate in male prisons, where there were 255 assaults per 1,000 inmates. This represented only a marginal rise of 3 per cent on the rate in 2021.

Prison watchdogs said the level of violence was “alarming” and that women with ill mental health had been sent to jails because of the shortage of places to treat them in hospitals or in the community.

They also cited the increased use of lock-ups of prisoners after Covid, where women could spend as long as 23 hours a day in their cells.

In a report, the independent monitoring boards raised concerns over mentally ill women being sent to prison “as a place of safety”.

It cited the cases of two women in HMP Peterborough, a closed female prison, who were so violent it required four officers to unlock their cells.

Pia Sinha, who oversaw the women’s prison estate at the MoJ before becoming chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust (PRT), said: “A lot of these women could be diverted to getting treatment in the community.

“But because there are no beds, they are coming into custody instead. That is importing a whole lot of vulnerability into the women’s estate.”

As well as women with more complex mental health problems and drug abuse problems, she said there was also a trade in prescription medicines in women’s jails that could spark bullying and violence.

“Staffing pressures and a lack of a consistent regime are exacerbating and triggering violence and self-harm,” said Ms Sinha, a former prison governor who made her name by turning around HMP Liverpool, once branded the UK’s worst jail.

“Prisons need to go back to basics where women are routinely let out of their cells for a set level of time and have a consistent regime with investment in rehabilitation and resettlement.”

Rate of assaults doubles

The MoJ data, uncovered by Inside Time, a prison newspaper, showed the rate of assaults by women per 1,000 prisoners had doubled from 195 in 2015 to 419 per 1,000 last year.

The rate for men has only grown slightly since 2015, rising from 242 per 1,000 to 255 per 1,000.

Female prisoners remain less likely to commit serious assaults but the gap closed last year, with 25 serious assaults per 1,000 prisoners by women inmates, compared with 30 per 1,000 by men.

The figures follow warnings last year by the Conservative-led House of Commons justice committee that ministers had failed to make enough progress on developing alternatives to jail for women.

Women in the justice system have distinct needs and worse outcomes than men, previous official reports have found.

They are more likely than men to have specific vulnerabilities that drive offending, including experiences of trauma and abuse, and pose less of a serious risk to the public.

A key objective of the Government’s female offender strategy, which was released in 2018, is to have fewer women in prison. Overall numbers have fallen, from 3,958 in February 2017 to 3,219 in July 2022.

However, according to MoJ predictions first published in November, the adult female prison population is expected to be 4,300 in July 2025, up by a third from 3,170 in July 2021.