Funding gap for women’s centres will mean more prison sentences

4WardEverUK • 31 December 2024

source: The Guardian

published: 22 December 2024

Image Credit: Unsplash at www.FreeRangeStock.com


A £5m funding gap for women’s centres will lead to more women being imprisoned and derail government reform plans, experts warn.


Women’s centres work with thousands in crisis, playing a central role in keeping vulnerable women out of prison. But two significant streams of government funding will end in March 2025, even though ministers have announced plans to reduce the number of women being locked up.

The National Women’s Justice Coalition (NWJC), whose 26 member organisations provide services including intervention programmes and community sentences, has told the Guardian they face a deficit of at least £5.1m in 2025 – and need an extra £500,000 to meet the increase in employers’ national insurance. With about 50 women’s centres in England and Wales, the funding deficit across the sector as a whole is expected to exceed those figures.

“Demand is growing at the time we’re facing this cliff edge,” said Rokaiya Khan, the chief executive of Together Women, a group of seven centres that supported 3,800 women in Yorkshire last year. “I have seen over the last 12 months more women in crisis, more women presenting with more complex needs, more women in dire straits with housing … and violence against women and girls is on the increase.


“When there are gaps, more women get arrested and end up in prison and on remand. You’re paying £50,000 a year to keep them in prison, when with £5,000 we could support a woman and help solve the prison crisis.”


Read full article >

share this article on social media

The White House
by 4WardEverUK 28 June 2025
California’s death row, the largest in the country and one of the largest in the world, has long been a symbol of what advocates described as systemic injustice, racial bias, and irreparable harm.
Eric Garner
by 4WardEverUK 21 June 2025
On Thursday 17 July 2014, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old father of six of Staten Island, went into cardiac arrest after officers attempted to take him into custody on charges of selling illegal cigarettes.
Woman using a laptop
by 4WardEverUK 21 June 2025
As part of Unjust Deaths, INQUEST have brought together a group of bereaved people, engaged artists, campaigners, journalists and others to form a Memorialisation Working Group.
Refugee camp
by 4WardEverUK 13 June 2025
Footage of the newly opened Israeli-backed, US-supported aid distribution centers in Gaza is horrifying: Palestinians clamoring to get food; crowds being turned away; gunfire ringing out.
Legal gavel rests on a book
by 4WardEverUK 13 June 2025
The Law Society has called on the Government to invest more money in civil legal aid to ensure greater access for all. More than 42 million people lack access to legal aid.
Gaza protestors
by 4WardEverUK 24 May 2025
The UN already has a proven system to deliver assistance to people in Gaza and will not take part in any plan that does not uphold universally established humanitarian principles.
More Articles