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<p>Our Female Offender Strategy is committed to improving outcomes for women at all
stages of the justice system, and this includes supporting those who have children.
We know that female prisoners are more likely than male prisoners to be a primary
carer and imprisoned mothers are more likely to be living with their children prior
to custody – around 60% of women compared with about 45% of men in prison who have
children. Figures from a 2015 data matching exercise with the Ministry of Justice
and the Department for Work and Pensions showed that between 24% and 31% of all female
offenders were estimated to have one or more child dependents.</p><p><br>We know that
when coming into contact with the criminal justice system, some women choose not to
disclose that they have dependent children for a number of reasons. As such, iIt is
difficult to create an accurate estimate of the number of women who choose not to
disclose and to provide appropriate targeted support. However, we want all women to
feel safe enough to disclose and are taking steps to encourage this, as outlined below.
This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that the National Probation Service’s
pre-sentence reports, which assist the court in making sentencing decisions, highlight
the fact an offender has dependent children and supporting the roll out of the ‘Safeguarding
Children When Sentencing Mothers’ training material developed by Dr Shona Minson.</p>
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