Response to ‘Time to Care: what helps women cope in prison?’ report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons from Women in Prison

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A new thematic report from HM Inspectorate of Prisons has highlighted frustrations about a lack of basic care, leading women in prison to self-harm. The research was carried out in four women’s prisons in England and found:

  • Gaps in basic decency and lack of access to essentials like clothes that fit or facilities to wash underwear
  • Basic frustrations around day-to-day life were in the top three reasons for self-harm in two out of the four prisons visited for the report
  • Women struggled to keep in contact with loved ones
  • About a third of women received no face-to-face visits at all
  • Women spent long periods of time locked in their cells with nothing to do
  • Excessive use of force from prison officers in response to women self-harming

Responding to the report, Nicola Drinkwater, Director of External Affairs and Campaigns, for Women in Prison, commented:

“Women with serious mental health problems should not be in prison. Yet today’s HM Inspectorate of Prisons report lays bare the brutal reality: prisons are unsafe, traumatising environments that worsen women’s mental ill-health, leading to alarming levels of distress and self-harm.

Without support for basic, essential needs like personal hygiene, suitable clothing, contact with family and friends, going outside and taking physical activity, the high levels of distress and self-harm in women’s prisons are horrifying, but unsurprising.

We know from our frontline work that mental ill-health can both drive women’s offending and be a consequence of criminalisation and imprisonment.

Rather than trapping women in a cycle of trauma and harm, we must invest in specialist, community-based support that prevents contact with the justice system in the first place. For those already subjected to the dire conditions and mistreatment in our jails, urgent action is needed to ensure women have their basic needs met, and receive appropriate, specialist mental health care.

We hope government plans, including the newly formed Women’s Justice Board, and the Mental Health Bill 2025 will address these issues as a priority.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

Women in Prison (WIP) is a national charity that delivers support for women affected by the criminal justice system in prisons, in the community and through our Women's Centres. We campaign to end the harm caused to women, their families and our communities by imprisonment.

HM Inspectorate of Prisons published ‘Time to Care: what helps women cope in prison?’ on Wednesday 5th February 2025.