18 August 2026
Context
The prison population is at 97% capacity, creating a dangerous situation of overcrowding and related concerns to physical and mental health, rehabilitative justice and fair treatment. The Independent Sentencing Review panel, which was set up to review and develop recommendations to address prison and probation challenges and support victims, highlighted that the prison population had more than doubled between 1993 and 2024, reaching over 85,000.[1] This has been accelerated by the rate of incarceration, especially for Black and minoritised people who make up 27% of the prison population compared to 14% of the general population. This represents a significant criminal justice system bias, as echoed by the Lammy Review 2017 and in the Baroness Casey Review 2023.[2] Racism within the system is encouraged by negative stereotyping carried out from magistrates to probation services [3], and yet, the review of prison capacity fails to even address racial disparity in sentencing as a root cause of the current crisis.
Black and minoritised and migrant women have experienced bullying, harassment and abuse whilst incarcerated. At Hibiscus we have supported women held in prison for over four decades in need of trauma-informed interventions and yet, have this issue received very little attention from prison authorities. We are aware that women’s incarceration is itself a form of trauma that exists on top of trauma from violence. Despite this, whilst in the prison estate, women’s support needs are ignored or addressed through piecemeal interventions that are difficult to sustain mainly due to funding shortfalls of women’s specialist services.
The Sentencing Act 2026 is a major piece of legislation that aims to reform the entire criminal sentencing system, strengthen community sentencing, reduce reoffending, and ensure capacity, among other goals the government aims to achieve. There has been significant emphasis on probation services and their ability to manage early releases, alongside concerns about victims’ safety. However, the needs, vulnerability and humanity of those due to be released has been entirely ignored. Concerns about safety have been met with an increased surveillance regime that continues to stigmatise those on release rather than aid their reintegration. Without appropriate support, the risk of ‘reoffending’ remains high.
We understand that women’s experiences of the criminal justice system are seldom the focus of policy. Stakeholders in policy and decision-making view the female estate as the same as the male estate: women’s experiences of the system, including the wider impact imprisonment has on the lives of women, are subject to the same procedures, ignoring a gendered perspective with a focus on women’s treatment through the system. Racial disparity also suggests that Black and minoritised and migrant women experience multiple barriers and disadvantage throughout their interaction with the system that has lifelong consequences for them.
A policy addressing women’s experiences of violence against women and girls (VAWG), ending female incarceration, connecting women’s experiences of incarceration to their socio-economic conditions and ending systemic racism is needed. A policy failing to make these vital connections can only provide a temporary solution, resulting in the continued over-criminalisation of some population cohorts, tougher and disproportionate sentencing and the introduction of more criminal offences.
What we stand for at Hibiscus in addressing the prison capacity crisis
At Hibiscus, we have aimed to shed light on women’s experience of the criminal justice system. Specifically, we are concerned with the experiences of Black and minoritised and migrant women exposed to the compound trauma of racism and violence. For decades we have confronted an inflexible male-orientated system that treats women as second-class, inconsequential participants, judged through the blanket administration of sentencing, without consideration of VAWG, masked as justice.
Hibiscus is committed to changing the lens through which this crisis is reviewed. Women’s early release is paramount and must focus equally on the experiences of women subject to the criminal justice system (CJS) and the post-incarceration needs, ending punitive discourse that shapes current policy. Government must ensure safe early release is designed around a package of specialist support enabling women to access rights-based women-centred support pathways. For women on early release, this means access to safe and secure housing enabling them to rebuild their lives after prison, remain free from violence and harm and reclaim custody of children alongside welfare support designed to enable them to reclaim their lives. The economic welfare of women must underpin women’s early release. Wider policy implications on the disruptions that incarceration has had on women’s lives must be fully acknowledged and addressed.
What is missing in the current discussion on prison capacity?
First, the specific response to women as victims-survivors of VAWG interacting with a criminal justice system that fails to recognise the wider circumstances of their lives, including how violence and coercion may shape or contribute to acts they are convicted for. Second is the issue of disproportionate sentencing and over-representation of Black and minoritised and migrant people. This racial disparity within the criminal justice system continues to be ignored in policy. Thinking about both VAWG and racial disparity, we have the conflation of two ideas that by reducing the female estate, we make space for more men; however, the existence of systemic racism suggests the continuation of disproportionate sentencing of Black and minoritised and migrant men. We cannot address injustice to women interacting with the system without equally addressing the system’s inherent racist bias. Gender and racial discrimination cannot go unchecked.
Prime Minister’s Proposals
Recently, the Prime Minister introduced three proposals to tackle prison capacity: a review of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), the early release of women from prison and faster returns of so-called ‘foreign national’ offenders.[4]
We welcome the review of the rightly condemned IPP sentences and support calls for more women to be released from prison. As part of any early release scheme, clear data on who is being released must be available in the hope that it addresses our concerns regarding disparity within the system. We also remain concerned that the early release of women will make more prison space available for men. It is vitally important for the government to assess gender and race as significant concerns to be addressed through policy and to prevent the exacerbation of racial disparity.
We strongly oppose that the speeding up of deportations of so-called ‘foreign national’ offenders will provide a sustainable solution to the current crisis. Beyond the fact that the proportion of migrant people in prison is relatively low (12%) [5], promoting such narratives overlooks the well-documented harms of using the immigration system as a substitute for the criminal justice system. Spreading such narratives represents an extension of the hostile environment and broader political intentions to detain and accelerate deportation.
A clear distinction between need and greed
The Independent Sentencing Review panel highlighted that the prison population had more than doubled over the previous three decades, largely due to ‘tough on crime’ approaches of successive governments that prioritise punishment. [6] We are concerned that despite the current prison capacity crisis, there have not been meaningful conversations about moving away from these approaches and towards preventative measures that address the underlying causes of criminalisation, including trauma and poverty. The system must make a clear distinction between the ‘need not greed’ dynamic (where those whose actions are driven by unmet needs are differentiated from others) that brings to light people’s circumstances that lead to them being labelled criminals. Redistributive measures are appropriate in cases where such circumstances may lead to criminal behaviour, ensuring that needs are met and removing the causes of offending.
Inclusion of migrant women’s experiences of VAWG in all reform and review
Additionally, VAWG must be centred in consideration around the sentencing of women. This must be underpinned by clear guidance on how such experiences occur, including coercive and controlling behaviour that may lead to women being criminalised as well as defensive behaviour exhibited by women in the context of violence. Late disclosure should not be used as grounds for excluding migrant women from such considerations. The system must acknowledge that trauma from violence prevents early disclosure from being made, due to the effect violence has on women’s mental and emotional health versus immediate survival instincts that require them to navigate systems differently. The timing of disclosure as a punitive measure must end.
Hibiscus’ position
We remain committed to a fair and just system that ends biases towards women and racial disparity.
We remain engaged in dialogue to centre VAWG early in women’s interactions with the criminal justice system, ensuring they receive trauma-informed support to navigate the complexity of the system and remain protected.
To this end, we call for community-based sentencing as the appropriate alternative for women and stress the importance of a responsive system that recognises women’s full and equal participation in society as heads of household, leaders of communities, and agents of change.
In parallel, we call for an end to the false equivalency in policy-making. Early release for women must not be used to incarcerate men at higher rates, with a disproportionate impact on Black and minoritised men, due to a policy failing to address racial disparity. Similarly, accelerated deportations of migrants cannot be claimed to be a solution.
We call on the Prime Minister to connect women’s substantive roles and status to the change we collectively seek for our communities, embedding equity, justice and rights in policy. For this to happen, a different conversation is needed with women and their representative organisations who support them through a trauma-informed approach. In any review and policy initiative, women must be involved and VAWG must be centred in the dialogue that shapes change.
We call on the Prime Minister to review the substantial evidence that already exists on racial disparity in the criminal justice system, impacting both women and men. Recent data shows the stark difference in public opinion of offending behaviours that are defined by racial biases [7], and such biases are also systemic and institutional, shaping the whole system, culminating in unfair and prejudicial treatment of Black and minoritised people.
We recommend that proposals to reduce the prison population address the root causes of the prison capacity crisis and that community-based solutions, without the imposition of over-surveillance (as this can be counter-productive to ending recidivism), are considered. Both gender and racial biases must be addressed to together and inform the national dialogue, but not by conflating the issues under false assumptions, rather under a justice and human rights approach.
Our recommendations for a system-wide reset will place all of us on a path to a restorative and just system that will one day work towards redistributive solutions ending mass incarceration, inequality and disparity and bringing justice to women.
For more information, contact us at: elizabeth@hibiscus.org.uk
4. The term ‘foreign national’ is found in government policy, but it is not used by Hibiscus as it holds negative connotations denoting the racialised other who is subsequently subjected to harsher and unfair treatment. We use the term “migrant” to refer to those seeking asylum from persecution and violence. However, we have referenced the government term by prefacing it with the term ‘so-called’ and emphasising our contention in inverted commas.
7. Dodd, V. 2026. 17 August. Public in England and Wales wrongly think most killers are minority ethnic. The Guardian. Found at https://www.theguardian.com/uknews/aug/public-in-england-and-wales-wrongly-think-most-killers-are-minority-ethnic.