Scottish Prison Population Statistics 2022-23

The latest longitudinal statistics on prison populations and flows into and out of prison. Includes information about the demographics of people in prison, the time they spend there, their sentences and offences.


2. Women in Custody

[Supplementary tables A2, B2 and M1]

In line with the overall (average daily) prison population, the (average daily) population of women remained stable in 2022-23 (282 compared to 283 in 2021-22).  The population of men fell by around 1% between 2021-22 and 2022-23, from 7,221 to 7,143, and therefore is also broadly stable.  Women comprised just 4% of the average daily prison population in 2022-23. 

While the population overall remained stable, this pattern varies by legal status category.  Figure 8 shows that the sentenced population of women fell by 10 (-5%) from 198 in 2021-22 to 188 in 2022-23, while there were small increases in the untried (+9 to 72) and CAS (+1 to 21) populations over the same period.

Figure 8: Women in prison by legal status – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2022-23

Annual average daily population of women in prison from 2009-10 to 2022-23 by legal status. The trend is described in the body of the report

Figure 9 (below) shows that between 2021-22 and 2022-23 the men’s CAS and sentenced populations similarly remained broadly stable (-5 each to 266 and 5,394, respectively), while the men’s untried population fell by 62 (-4%) from 1,507 to 1,445. 

Figure 9: Men in prison by legal status – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2022-23

Annual average daily population of men in prison from 2009-10 to 2022-23 by legal status. The trend is described in the body of the report

As a share of their respective populations, the proportion of women on remand has consistently exceeded that of men.  From 2021-22 to 2022-23 that gap widened.  Where previously 29% of women and 25% of men were on remand on an average day, in 2022-23 the proportion of women on remand increased to 33%, while for men it fell slightly to 24%.

2.1 Index offence groups

[Supplementary table M2]

On the average day in 2022-23, 113 women had index offences[1] in Group 1 (Violence), a fall of 8% from 122 in 2021-22.  Nevertheless, this remains the largest offence group in the average daily sentenced population of women.  The population with index offences in Group 3 (Crimes of dishonesty) also fell by 8% (-1 individual) to 21, while the population with index offences in Group 5 (Crimes against society) remained stable over the same period.  The population of women serving sentences for index Group 3 (Dishonesty) and 5 (Crimes against society) index offences remains less than half of pre-pandemic levels. 

The population with index offences in the other offence groups remained at very low levels in 2022-23 (less than 10 individuals on the average day)  (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Sentenced index offence groups of women – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2022-23

Annual average daily population of women from 2009-10 to 2022-23 by index offence group. The trend is described in the body of the report

 

2.2 Index sentences

[Supplementary table M3]

Figure 11 shows the index sentence[2] profile of the (average daily) population of women to 2022-23.  While the overall sentenced population of women fell in 2022-23, this pattern varies by index sentence group.  Of those serving index sentences of up to 1 year, the population rose from 54 in 2021-22 to 62 in 2022-23, and the number serving life sentences also rose slightly from 46 to 48.  Meanwhile there were relatively large decreases in the ‘> 1 and ≤ 2 years’ (-8 to 24) and ‘> 2 and ≤ 4 years’ (-9 to 23) index sentence groups and small decreases in ‘> 4 and < 10 years’ (-2 to 24) and ‘10+ years’ (-1 to 3) index sentences.

As in the overall population, the share of the women’s sentenced population with shorter index sentences remains below pre-pandemic levels.  In 2019-20, 68% of the (average daily) women’s sentenced population had index sentences of 4 years or less.  In 2022-23 this had fallen to 58%. 

Figure 11: Index sentence length populations of women in custody – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2022-23

Annual average daily population of women from 2009-10 to 2022-23 by index sentence. The trend is described in the body of the report

 

Contact

Email: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot

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