Women on remand

About the project

The Howard League has joined a collective of women-led and justice organisations, funded by Firebird Collective, who are committed to ending the unjust and unsafe imprisonment of women before they are sentenced or tried in the UK.

Why remand?

Across the prison estate, people on remand account for a fifth of the total prison population. This is a record high and part of a rising trend. This problem is even more pronounced in the female estate, where the proportion of women on remand is higher than in the men’s estate (26% versus 20%) and is growing at a faster rate.

There is limited public safety rationale for remanding women to custody – The MoJ Female Offender Strategy, for example, acknowledged that almost nine in 10 women held on remand are low or medium risk of serious harm to the public. It has been estimated that around two thirds of women on remand go on to be acquitted or receive a community sentence.

Remand is particularly problematic for women. Being remanded into custody results in the dismantling of support systems in the community, including relationships, family links, housing, medical and social care and employment. The inappropriate use of prison as a ‘place of safety’ for vulnerable women is widely noted in policy and research, and in Westminster. Rates of self-harm among women in prison are eight times higher than among men, and this is compounded for women on remand where rates are higher than for sentenced women.

Our goals

Our overarching aim is to end the use of prison for women awaiting trial or sentencing.