By Jessica Pandian

Through foregrounding the circumstances of seven deaths in women’s prisons and highlighting issues which have persisted for decades, this report provides further evidence that the women’s prison estate is – and for decades has been – incapable of adequate reform. An analysis of the deaths reveals the key thematic issues, which fall under three categories: 1. not believing prisoners in crisis and at risk, 2. failings in prison processes, and 3. imprisonment as the default to social inequality. Lastly, the report provides a statistical analysis of deaths and self-harm in women’s prison from 2018 - 2024If we do not address the current prison crisis and reflect on its harmful impact, it is inevitable that more people will be exposed to the harms of the prison environment and die. This report is a blunt reminder to the Government to act now by committing to dismantle the women’s estate and halt all prison building.
This report exposes the successive failures of reforms, strategies and frameworks introduced in the policy around women’s prisons in England and Wales since the launch of the Ministry of Justice’s Female Offender Strategy in 2018.1 The strategy’s intended purpose was to improve lived conditions in women’s prisons and reduce the women’s prison population. 2018 also marks the year in which INQUEST published 'Still Dying on the Inside', 2 the third INQUEST publication providing unique insight into deaths in women’s prisons.