Recommendation 17

The Committee notes the concerns raised by witnesses that the commitment to build 500 prison places in the female estate appears at odds with the aims of the Female Offender Strategy. However, we also recognise that the 500 additional prison places have the potential to improve custodial conditions for those who are imprisoned, as well as going some way towards achieving the Strategy’s aim of making the female estate more trauma informed. We would welcome further clarity on the Government’s plans for the 500 places. The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS should set out: • A breakdown of how the 500 prison places will be used. For example, how many places will be allocated as open prison places; how many places will be allocated to replace old for new prison places and how many will be entirely new places in the closed estate; • How many old prison places in the female estate have been decommissioned since the announcement of 500 new places, and how many it anticipates will be decommissioned in the coming years; • How many new prison places have already been built, and what the timeline is for completing the construction of the remaining places; and • The modelling the MoJ and HMPPS undertook to determine that 500 places were needed. (Paragraph 102) Women in Prison 77