ABSTRACT
We saw that the numbers of women remanded in custody have been increasing, that they made up a quarter of the female prison population, and yet only 30 per cent eventually receive a custodial sentence. Considering the distress and disruption caused by imprisonment for the women and the difficulties which this creates for the management of prison regimes, this would appear to be an obvious first place to seek a reduction in the female prison population. Yet we know all too little about how and why courts use remand.
