Women in prison

The Guardian -  “Prison is not a good environment for women, let alone someone who is pregnant,” says Sabrina Mahtani, a British-Zambian lawyer and member of Women Beyond Walls, a global collaboration dedicated to combating the over-incarceration of women and girls. “There’s so much research that shows how harmful it is.

“Many prisons were built with men in mind, so women were an afterthought. There are lots of issues around violence, a lack of resources, a lack of sanitation, overcrowding, but also a real lack of gender-responsive care.”

It is 15 years since the UN general assembly adopted the Bangkok Rules for the treatment of female prisoners and non-custodial measures for female offenders. The first set of international guidelines to address the situation of incarcerated women, they were formulated in response to the growing female prison population worldwide. Since 2000, the number of women and girls in prison has risen by 57%, compared with a 22% increase in the male prison population over the same period.
A pram in a prison setting behind bars
A prison in Colombia, South America. UN guidelines that prison should be a last resort for pregnant women are flouted around the world. Photograph: Anadolu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The UN rules state that prison should be a last resort for pregnant women and that non-custodial sentences should always be considered first. They also say that “instruments of restraint shall never be used on women during labour, during birth and immediately after birth”.

But the guidelines are consistently flouted around the world. “This isn’t seen as a global gender-equality priority,” says Mahtani. “It’s not visible, and there’s a lot of stigma and stereotyping. Countries think it’s a small number of women so it’s not an issue, but that’s not true.”