Despite commitments by successive governments to reduce the number of females in prison, the number continues to rise, and last year rose by 3%. Figure 20 is a graph showing the growth of the prison population over 20 years broken down by gender.
Over the last ten years, the number of women in prison has doubled compared with a 31% rise for men over the same ten year period (from 1999/2000 to 2009/10).
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