Ministers to examine converting female prison spaces to house male inmates

Ministers will seriously examine converting parts of the female prison estate into cells that can safely house male prisoners, as the government looks to reduce numbers of women in prison to ease strain on the system.

The prisons minister Catherine McKinnell is to look into the practicalities of converting female spaces to male over the coming months, after warnings from governors and experts that it would pose significant challenges.

Andy Burnham said earlier in the summer that the government was keen to examine freeing more women from prison as a way of building capacity in the system to avoid the early release of more dangerous male prisoners.

But in the details released this week on ways the government planned to free up more space, the emphasis was on deporting foreign offenders and reducing the number of prisoners serving highly controversial imprisonment for public protection sentences, which keep people inside for an indefinite spell.

After a backlash from victims and families, Burnham changed plans for the early release of some prisoners as part of a plan to ease overcrowding. He said he would be preventing the early release of offenders guilty of all forms of manslaughter, as well as rapists, child sexual abusers and groomers.

About 4,500 prisoners are due to be released early in 10 tranches from October under the plans, 1,500 fewer than before Burnham’s interventions. Experts including the former justice secretary David Gauke have warned that the government is taking a big risk running prisons so close to capacity.

But the Guardian understands that officials have told ministers that plans to reduce the number of female prisoners will need much longer-term planning. Andrea Coomber, chief executive of penal reform charity the Howard League, said a genuine reduction in the number of female prisoners would be welcome, but not simply happen to free up space for men.

“[It] does nothing to fix a prison system that is fundamentally too full – it just moves the crisis from one part of the estate to another,” she said. “Without real investment in women’s centres and community alternatives, women risk being sacrificed to the scramble for more beds for men.”

Women currently represent less than 5% of the total prison population in Britain, with 12 dedicated jails. Government sources also said those who would be more likely to be freed would be those on mother and baby units where they cannot be replaced by male prisoners.

The victims minister Alex Davies-Jones said the government still believed that the “vast majority of women who are in prison, many of whom are mothers and have young children, shouldn’t necessarily be there. They are victims in their own right, and they can be appropriately managed in the community through women’s centres.”

But she said that the government could not take a “one-size-fits-all approach” to converting female prisons into male spaces, telling LBC: “There are some women who absolutely should be in prison, and they will remain there.

“But where there is a case to answer that we can re-purpose the female estate, because we know the prison capacity problem is in our male estate, 98% at capacity in the male estate, then we will look to re-purpose to see what we can do to free up capacity and move the estates around.”

Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Trust, said a smaller women’s prison estate could be a positive step if it reduced the number of women jailed and increased the support in communities, who had complex and often unmet needs.

“Any decision about the future of the women’s estate must recognise this reality,” she said. “Rather than viewing a women’s prison as a solution to overcrowding in the men’s estate, the government’s priority should be implementing the Women’s Justice Board’s recommendations and building the community support that can deliver better outcomes for women and safely reduce the number of women in custody in the first place.”