Our Vulnerable Women’s Project and the BBC’s findings: why reform can’t wait
(Posted on 27/11/25)
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This week’s BBC report from HMP Send highlights a truth that those of us working in the justice system have known for years: far too many women in prison are themselves victims of abuse, coercion, and violence long before they ever commit an offence.
As Prisons Minister Lord Timpson candidly observes, many of the women he meets behind bars are “black and blue” - traumatised, vulnerable, and often serving short sentences for non-violent crimes that do little to address the harm that has shaped their lives.
Inside Justice sees these realities every day. Women come to us with histories that mirror those in the BBC piece. Yet instead of trauma-informed community support, they are funnelled into prisons where trauma is compounded, not healed.
Trauma shapes decisions - sentencing should reflect this
Women like “Tina,” whose story is featured in the BBC article, speak openly about decades of relentless abuse that shaped their choices long before they entered the criminal justice system. This does not remove personal responsibility, but it does demand sentencing that understands:
- the neurological and psychological impact of long-term violence
- the way coercive control distorts agency
- the prevalence of brain injuries among abused women
- the disproportionality of custodial sentences for non-violent offences
With more than 72% of female prisoners serving time for non-violent offences, many of these women simply do not belong in prison.
Inside Justice’s Vulnerable Women’s Project is addressing the gap the system ignores
We recognise that women’s pathways into offending are distinct and often rooted in trauma. That is why we are continuing our Vulnerable Women’s Project, a focused initiative shaped by what we see in our casework:
- women who have been failed by statutory services
- women whose histories of abuse or coercion were never explored at trial
- women whose vulnerabilities make it harder to navigate the criminal appeals system
- women whose trauma-related brain injuries have never been assessed
- women who are silenced, blamed, or invisible within an adversarial court process
The project aims to ensure that women's experiences of violence, coercion, and neurological harm are not dismissed as “background” but properly understood as core to their cases.
We provide specialist casework support for women whose vulnerability intersects with potential miscarriages of justice. We are building a stakeholder group of a range of experts spanning multiple disciplines to to ensure evidence is surfaced, understood, and considered. Together, with the input of women and their families, we aim to influence policy discussions on the treatment of vulnerable defendants.
By amplifying voices like those in today’s BBC report, we wish to build public understanding of why so many criminalised women are, first and foremost, survivors
This project is a practical response to precisely the issues revealed in HMP Send: a justice system struggling to distinguish between offending and survival.
Inside Justice will continue to advocate for a justice system that recognises the complexity of women’s lives, ensures fairness in conviction and sentencing, and provides meaningful pathways to justice.
The BBC’s report is a reminder of what is at stake. It is time to stop criminalising women for their trauma and start building a justice system that breaks cycles of harm, rather than perpetuating them.
