Analyzing the Imprisonment of Women for Non-Violent Offences in the UK

This essay delves into the controversial issue of imprisoning women for non-violent offenses within the UK's criminal justice system. It begins by outlining the current state of female imprisonment, highlighting the conditions and challenges faced by women in prison, including health issues, family separation, and the impact on children. The essay argues against the imprisonment of women for non-violent crimes, emphasizing the availability of alternative punishments such as fines, probation, and community service. It explores the potential negative consequences of imprisonment, including increased mental health issues, the disruption of family life, and the potential for re-offending. The essay concludes by advocating for a shift towards more rehabilitative and restorative justice approaches for female offenders, emphasizing the need for a more compassionate and effective criminal justice system. The essay references various sources to support the arguments and provides a comprehensive overview of the topic.

We should not be
sending women to
prison for non violent
offences

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The prison is the place where the criminal reside for punishment awarded by the court.
The crime committed by the criminals can be classified into civil or criminal. But, in UK the
prison for male and female is different. The female can give birth and hold their child in prisons
as per the law of the country. There are almost 11,000 people who are residing in the England
and Wales prisons due to the sentence as awarded by the criminal court of the country(Oxley,
2020). This essay would explain about the condition of the female prisoners in the United
Kingdom. It would also outline that how the female prisoners term in prison can be reduced by
the court. It would also explain about the different alternatives that is available in place of the
imprisonment for the non violent offences that is being committed by the female criminals.
Main Body
The violent crime are criminal act that involves harm to the body of the person such as
murder, grievous hurt. So, the main essential of the violent act is the involvement of any of the
bodily part of the individual. Moreover, criminal act are held to be penalised by the court. On
the other hand, the non violent offences are those offences that does not harm any body part of
the person. The non violent criminal act involves those criminal acts that are against an object or
building such as theft, larceny, etc. as per the section 9 of the Crime and Victims Act, 2004.
These acts includes loss to property of an individual. For instance, if while doing theft the thief
grievously harms the innocent person, then it would be concluded as the violent act and not the
non violent act.
For committing such violent and non violent criminal acts, criminal is being sentenced
by the court of the nation. After getting the sentence and judgement as given by the respective
judge, the criminal is being sent to the prison of country. There is a separate prison system of
United Kingdom. All the provisions of the prisoners act has to be followed by every criminal
who is residing in the prison of country. The condition of the prison system in UK is not so good
as reported by the authorities in recent years. There are various reason for such bad condition of
prison system. The condition of the prison is poor because there is no special focus given to the
prisoners by the government. In addition to this, the family members of criminals are so helpless
to do anything for their family members who are residing in country. One such condition
includes that number of criminals are increasing day by day in UK which results into increase in

the number of prisoners in the prison. The more number of prisoners needs more resources and
hence the quality of the resources in prison is decreasing day by day. Moreover, there are also
various health issues in the prison system(Raymen and Smith, 2019).
The male prisoners are more in number as compare to the female numbers. The
responsibility to male is also less as compare to the male prisoners. This is because the females
are also responsible for upbringing their child in the prison. There are various reasons that why
the women must not be sent to prisons in case of committing the non violent criminal acts. One
of the reason is that there are different types of health issues specifically with relate to women in
the prison. The women are more emotional as compare to man which results into overthinking,
stress and eventually depression to the female prisoners. There are various responsibilities to the
female prisoners with relate to the family. The family is basically dependent on the women for
every day work. There are various news related to prison suicides done by the prisoners. On such
news as per the BBC report is that one female prisoner tried to do suicide 11 times. But failed all
the time. This is the level of depression that is being faced by the female prisoners in the prison.
It can be seen that the childhood of children is also badly impacted in the prison. Further more,
children are living in prison without even doing any criminal act. This would badly impact the
psychology and the behaviour of the children of female prisoners in long run. The education of
the children is also affected by the prison system of the women prisoners. Moreover, the main
reason for the imprisonment is criminal would not do the a rime in future. But this, would
increase the crime in the future de to the aggression that is being developed in the life of the
prison. In addition to this, more the prisoners, the less the quality of life in prison. It would also
increase the cost of the prison system for government which would need more funds. As the
funds are being invested in the prison, there would be less fund that can b invested in the process
of development of the country(Seal and O'Neill, 2021).
There are also various alternatives through which the non violent criminals can be
punished like penalty imposed on the criminal, arbitrary processes done under the arbitration law
of the country. Other alternatives includes the probation, deferred adjudication, diversion, fines
and suspended sentence for short time period. These alternatives would help the non violent
prisoners in reducing the mental stress , attempts of suicide, ETC. by the women prisoners in the
prison system. It would also empower the women in the country by not committing these crimes
in the future. Moreover, the imprisonment for the individual would decrease the self esteem and

reputation of that individual in the society. The court must give one chance to the criminals by
only penalising them for the minor offences like small thievery. This would give justice to both
the parties as the penalty would give money back to the victim. Moreover, as the accused would
pay the penalty he would make sure that these criminal acts would not be committed in the
future. When the women are imprisoned for the small offences, then it would result into the
emotional and financial hardship to the family of the accused in the case. This is a type of cruelty
as per the law of UK. It can be seen that the women who are in the prison mainly belong to the
marginalised and poor section of the society as per the case law of Sheh v butman , 1992. They
are so vulnerable that they is merely no chance of development to these section of the society.
There are more chances of transformation when these criminals would not live in prison. Some
of the cases explains that the people who are not involved in drugs have involved in this after
going to the prison. Hence, the women should not be imprisoned for the petty offences that are
non violent in nature as per the criminal law of UK(Tomczak, 2019).
CONCLUSION
The above written essay concludes about that the women must not be send to the prison
for the non violent crimes committed by them. It also concludes about the worse condition of the
women prisoners in the prison of UK. It summarises various ways through which these criminals
can be punished as per the criminal law of the country. It has explained about the mental pressure
and mental stress on the female prisoners when they are unable to fulfil their duties in the period
when they are being imprisoned by the criminal court of the country. It also summarises about
methods that can be used to transform the female prisoners of UK.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Oxley, R., 2020. Harry Blagg and Thalia Anthony (2019) Decolonising Criminology: Imagining
Justice in a Postcolonial World. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. International
Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9(3), pp.180-182.
Raymen, T. and Smith, O. eds., 2019. Deviant leisure: Criminological perspectives on leisure
and harm. Springer Nature.
Seal, L. and O'Neill, M., 2021. Imaginative criminology: Of spaces past, present and future. New
Horizons in Criminology.
Tomczak, P.H.I.L.I.P.P.A., 2019. Prison Suicide.