§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the(a) main categories of offence for women prisoners and (b) re-offending rates for drug offences among women prisoners were in each of the last five years. [82864]
§ Hilary BennInformation requested on main offence categories of women is shown in the table.
605W
Women first received into prison in England and Wales in 2001, by offence type and type of first reception Offence group Total Untried Convicted unsentenced Sentenced Non-criminal Violence against the person 4,318 561 191 557 9 Sexual offences 29 10 4 15 — Burglary 527 357 75 95 — Robbery 395 231 43 120 1 Theft and handling 4,587 1,350 1,715 1,522 — Fraud and forgery 678 162 117 399 — Drugs offences 1,452 763 234 455 — Other offences 2,981 671 530 980 — Offences not recorded 997 241 255 501 — Total 12,164 4,346 3,164 4,644 10 Re-offending rates are not normally measured as they rely on the self-reporting of offending by offenders. Such an approach can lead to questions over the reliability of data based on individuals' recollection and willingness to impart their offending behaviour to an official source.
However two-year reconviction rates for females released from prison after serving a sentence for a standard list drug offence are available. The rates are shown in the table.
Two year reconviction rates for females discharged from prison after serving sentence for a standard list drugs offence Year of discharge Number of females discharged after serving a sentence for a standard list drugs offence Percentage reconvicted within two years for any standard list offence 1994 244 18 1995 298 19 1996 428 26 1997 554 26 1998 700 25
§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women are in prison; and of these, how many(a) are on remand, (b) are from black and ethnic minority groups and (c) have no previous convictions. [82876]
§ Hilary BennAt 31 October 2002, there were 4,427 females in prison. Of these, 984 were on remand and 1,316 were from ethnic minority groups.
Information on the sentenced prison population held on 30 June 2000 has been analysed by the number of standard list offences for which a prisoner had received a conviction. On that date, 32 per cent, of females held in prison in England and Wales were known to have no previous convictions prior to the sentence which resulted in imprisonment. In addition, criminal histories for a further 11 per cent, of females could not be located on the Home Office Offenders Index.