... are in jail for their first time and most of them will not have expected to have been given a custodial sentence according to 'Managing the needs of female prisoners', commissioned by the Home Office. Devlin found that the women in her studies highlighted many of the things that need to be changed in prisons that cater for women. Heavily pregnant women were transported to court or Mother and Baby Units (MBU'S) in unsafe 'sweatboxes' or security vans and there was minimal access to any means of solving outside problems, such as childcare, accommodation and dealing with social services. Almost 50% of women were primary carers before imprisonment (National Prison Survey 1991as cited in Devlin 1998) contrasted with 32% of men. The Howard League for Penal Reform has long campaigned against the mothers of young children being sent to jail, except in the cases of high risk women, and then ...

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