4m
21 Jan 2025

Inside HMP Downview: one of 12 women’s prisons in England & Wales

Reporter

Criminal justice experts brought together by the government are drawing up a new strategy to cut the number of women being sent to prison – as figures show that two thirds of female prisoners say they’ve been victims of domestic violence.

The Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said it was time to find better ways of helping vulnerable women to turn their lives around and stop the revolving door of crime.

“My 15-year-old son died. And yeah, my life just spiralled from then really.”

We’re inside HMP Downview – one of 12 female prisons in England and Wales.

“I feel like I needed help more than I needed punishing. I think I was in a dark hole that I just couldn’t get out of, and I think prison just put me into an even darker hole.”

Like most women in the prison, Beth – not her real name – has had a lot of time to reflect on where things went so wrong.

She was imprisoned for defrauding someone to fund her drug addiction. It was her first offence – but it has meant she’s spent almost 2 years away from her children, a situation she has found unbearable.

“I can’t even describe it. I hate it. My kids are my life, and all I’ve done is hurt them. And I didn’t want to hurt them. They’re the last people in the world that I ever want to hurt.”

Over half of women in prison are mothers. The impact of their incarceration is thought to affect 17,000 children a year.

“I ran a home, ran a car. My children went to school. I wasn’t a drug user, I didn’t drink alcohol. And then I got with this guy that was smoking crack and heroin into six months of the relationship.”

Sophie, as we’re calling her, was imprisoned on drug offences. Her children had already been removed from her care because of witnessing harrowing domestic violence against her. After that, her life unravelled.

“My mind wasn’t right but I didn’t know how to get out of it, I was trapped in this circle, so to me, yeah okay, you can punish me, but a prison sentence doesn’t always mean that’s the right punishment.”

Sophie says being in prison does a lot more damage than good.

“When you hear slamming doors and you’re a victim of domestic violence, and you hear banging and arguments, and shouting, it’s reliving trauma.”

It’s experiences like Sophie and Beth’s that will drive the government’s newly-formed Women’s Justice Board which will explore alternatives to prison like rehabilitation, women’s centres and tagging.

It aims to find alternatives to sending women to prison, cut reoffending and better support children.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood says too many women are in prison, and too many of the wrong women are going to prison.

“Ultimately, I would like us to be closing women’s prisons. That will be a long road to get to that point, because we have to turn the whole system around. To change will take some time.”

She accepts that some lower crimes like shoplifting are not completely victimless, and her plans must tally with the Prime Minister’s agenda on being tough on crime, and safer streets.

“Of course, as a government, we have to be clear. We have set out a very clear stall on our approach to law and order. Often shoplifting type offences are connected to drug dealing and having a male partner who is forcing them into shoplifting. So there’s a question here as to who is the real victim and who is the real offender.”

The board will report in the spring, where they’ll decide on new solutions to age old problems.

All against the backdrop of an ever stretched budget.