Exploring community-based approaches for women impacted by the justice system

This announcement has been received positively across the sector by those who had been specifically calling for a Women’s Justice Board, such as the National Women’s Justice Coalition of which One Small Thing, the charity I work for, is a member.

But if there are to be less women in prison, what does a community-based approach look like, and how do we get there? Despite the signs of progress, this question remains largely unconfirmed by those responsible for making decisions about our justice system. The recently announced Autumn Budget does little to explain how the ambitions of the Women’s Justice Board could become a reality.

The call for less women in prison has been a longstanding agenda item for those working in women’s justice. Most women in prison are sent there unnecessarily, when they could have been safely supported in the community. The impact of prison can be especially devastating for women, who often lose their homes, jobs and their children – sometimes permanently. According to Prison Reform Trust, an estimated 17,500 children were separated from their mother by imprisonment in 2020, and in 2023, half of women leaving prison did so without settled accommodation to go to. All this, often for the sake of a matter of months in prison. Just over half of women in prison receive sentences of six months or less.

The experiences of women affected by the justice system, often impacted by trauma, poverty, and structural violence, are diverse, but speak volumes about the impact a chronic lack of investment in communities can have for individuals. One thing is clear, what we’re doing now isn’t working. For women, prison is almost never the answer to issues we should be trying to solve. The good news is that we aren’t ignorant to some of the solutions.

We know that when women are supported and managed in the community instead of unnecessarily ripped from their support networks, they can stay with their children, maintain their homes or be supported into housing, and keep up their employment if they have it. All those things make it much less likely that they will be further drawn into the justice system. So, with this knowledge, why have community sentences declined? And why have we not seen secure, long-term funding for women’s specific and public services in the community that could prevent women’s involvement in the justice system in the first place?

In my role as Policy and Communications Officer at One Small Thing, I gather learning from solutions such as our pilot residential community for women and their children, Hope Street, and work on broader research around practitioners’ understanding of community-based solutions for women, and what they think needs to change. Nearly half of respondents to our survey reported that they believed that women received short custodial sentences rather than community orders, precisely because there are not enough services in the community. All too often prison is used as the solution, in place of creating strong and well-resourced communities.

In 2025, I will be embarking on my Churchill Fellowship, visiting Canada, Germany and Finland. I’m looking forward to exploring how those working on the frontline and beyond are moving their communities closer to a future where prisons are not seen as the solution for women – and, importantly, how they are inspiring policy makers to get on board. It’s likely that some of the challenges we face are similar, and I am excited to learn how they have approached these with a different perspective.

I have already made some great contacts and had fascinating conversations, and these early insights have been a valuable reminder that the status quo can always be broken. If you’d like to support my journey, or if you have any suggestions of changemakers in Canada, Germany, or Finland who are driving the conversation around women in the justice system in their communities, please reach out.

You can connect with Sarah on LinkedIn or X (formerly Twitter).