Our thanks to Jeff for this (Telegraph, £). Still faced 26 weeks in prison under sentencing guidelines. She had 61 previous convictions. An extract:
Sentencing Still, Wendy Steel JP said: “We are concerned that you need to be wary of situations where alcohol is concerned because that clearly aggravates the situation considerably.
“We hope that you take this opportunity to see that the court has been sympathetic and probably won’t be as sympathetic in the future.” [J4MB: That’s no way to speak to a lady! Brutal. The possibility – let alone a laughable ‘probability’ – of a court incarcerating Ms Still if she reaches a total of 63 convictions (as she surely will) may not be keeping her awake at night.]
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Justice for Men & Boys 
There are about 3,600 women prisoners in England & Wales. Prison estate capacity is under strain for both men and women.
Experts are warning that the numbers in women’s prison could rise significantly.
The plans to build even another 500 new women’s prison places were paused. The concern (by Prison Reform Trust) is that funding instead might shift to male prison capacity.
The Women’s Justice Board was created in January 2025 to explore ways to send fewer women to prison. Women are already down to just 4% of the prison population and the need is steadily rising (in 1969 it was just 2%).
Reducing the male prison population by just half of one percent would give more than the 500 places the women need,. This would enable one of the smaller men’s prisons to be handed over to women (only after putting in specialised facilities for women, of course, like child-visitation rooms, education facilities, therapeutic visitor’s counselling rooms, and all the other semi-official niceties female prisoners get).
The Men’s Justice Board … oh, come on, you don’t really expect equality under the law, do you? For men?
And all that fuss about the Sentencing Guidelines where so many people showed their supposed care about the racist effects, while very few ever mentioned that men were far more at a disadvantage, yet the guidelines dictated help for women, not men.
With all the accumulation of favouritism for female criminals, and the lack of women’s spaces despite the growing need, can we blame a judge for not sentencing a woman criminal to prison – unless the offence is so serious that custody cannot plausibly be avoided? As William Collins implies, the average woman in prison is there for worse offences than the average male prisoner.
I encourage everyone talking to any politician at any level what they intend doing about the lack of equality under the law – making it clear that this is a vote-changing issue.
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