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

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

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

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