Women in Custody

[Supplementary Tables A2, B2 and M1]

The (average daily) population of women in prison custody increased by around 12.8%, from 282 in 2022-23 to 318 in 2023-24. This is a greater rate of growth than the overall population (+5.8% over the same period), although women still comprised just 4% of the average daily prison population in 2023-24, unchanged from the previous year. The population of men increased by around 5.5% between 2022-23 and 2023-24, from 7,144 to 7,540.

Figure 9 shows that the sentenced population of women increased by 29 (+15%) from 188 in 2022-23 to 217 in 2023-24. The untried population remained at the same level (72) and the population convicted awaiting sentence CAS increased slightly (+8 to 29) over the same period.

Figure 9: The average daily population of women in prison increased in 2023-24 for the first time in four years, driven by a rise in the sentenced population

Average daily population of women in prison by legal status, 2009-10 to 2023-24

Figure 10 shows that between 2022-23 and 2023-24 the men's CAS and sentenced population rose (CAS: from 266 to 287, +7.8%; sentenced: from 5,395 to 5,799, +7.5%) while the men’s untried population fell by 37 (-2.6%) from 1,446 to 1,408.

Figure 10: The average daily population of men in prison increased in 2023-24, driven by a rise in the sentenced population

Average daily population of men in prison by legal status, 2009-10 to 2023-24

As a share of their respective populations, the proportion of women on remand on an average day has consistently exceeded that of men. This pattern held between 2022-23 and 2023-24, although there was drop of around one percentage point in both groups over that period (to 32% of women and 22% of men).

Index offence groups

[Supplementary table M2]

In a sentenced population of 217 on the average day in 2023-24, 123 women had index offences[i] in Group 1 (Non-sexual crimes of violence), an increase of 6% from 116 in 2022-23. This is slightly lower than the change in the population of sentenced women overall (+15%), but it remained the largest offence group in 2023-24.

The population with index offences in Group 3 (Crimes of dishonesty) grew by 39% (+8 to 28), and the population with index offences in Group 5 (Crimes against society) increased by 25% (+6to 32). The population with index offences in the other offence groups remained at very low levels in 2023-24 (less than 10 on the average day)  (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Increases between 2022-23 and 2023-24 in the number of women serving sentences for index non-sexual crimes of violence,crimes of dishonesty and crimes against society

Sentenced index offence groups of women – average daily populations, 2009-10 to 2023-24

Index sentences

[Supplementary table M3]

Figure 12 shows the index sentence[ii] profile of the (average daily) population of women to 2023-24. Of those serving index sentences of up to 1 year, the population rose 34% from 58 in 2022-23 to 78 in 2023-24. There was also an increase in the ‘> 1 and ≤ 2 years’ (+9 to 35), while the group serving‘> 2 and ≤ 4 years’  index sentences remained at a similar level (+1 to 25). The population with longer index sentences (> 4 years) also remained similar (+2 to 29).

While the share of the women’s sentenced population with shorter index sentences (up to 4 years) remains below pre-pandemic levels (68% in 2019-20), it has increased slightly on last year: in 2022-23 this had fallen to 58%; in 2023-24 it increased again to 64% of the sentenced population of women.

Figure 12: Increases in the population of women serving short index sentences, as well as smaller increases for sentences of between 4 and less than 10 years in 2023-24

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