Ross Clark Ross Clark

The sexism in our prisons the government is happy to ignore

There is one form of female under-representation which no-one seems concerned about – the fact that a mere 4.5 per cent of the prison population is made up of women. No one says we must rebalance that so as to make it 50-50 by 2025, or whatever. It just seems to be accepted that men are more prone to greed, lust and violence, and that greater numbers of them deserve to be behind bars. I guess that is right. If we have 20 times more male offenders than female ones, then I want the prison population to reflect that.

But why the need to readjust the criminal justice system in order to try to exaggerate the gender imbalance in our jails even further? This morning, Justice Secretary David Gauke was on the Today programme explaining why the government had decided to abandon plans to build extra women’s prisons and would instead built ‘residential centres’ where female offenders would serve community sentences. “There are particular issues with female prisoners,” said Gauke, explaining that many of them had been driven to offending after being abused by partners and the like.

Yet at the same time the government is preparing for a 10,000 rise in the prison population. Two new jails will be built, prisons minister Rory Stewart said yesterday, as tougher sentences for things like causing death by dangerous driving increased the length of time which offenders served behind bars.

Add the two things together and it is a pretty blatant case of discrimination. If you are going to pursue a more liberal justice policy, which – as Tony Blair would put it – is tougher on the causes of crime than on crime itself – then surely it should apply to male offenders as well as female ones.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in