An increase in the number of women locked up in Northern Ireland over recent years "tallies" with the economic crisis, Justice Minister Naomi Long has suggested.
Northern Ireland's female prison population has trebled over the course of the past four years, from just 40 women prisoners prior to the pandemic to 120 now.
Mrs Long said delays in the justice system, with women locked up for crimes committed years ago, could be one explanation. But she also suggested dire economic circumstances could explain the increase, with many female prisoners locked up for what the Minister described as "acquisitive crime".
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She had been asked to explain the rise in the female prison population during Minister's question time at the Assembly earlier this week, by the SDLP MLA Justin McNulty.
Mr McNulty asked the Minister to explain "why the number of women in prison has increased by 200% since before the pandemic, when there were just 40 women in prison, as, at a meeting with the Criminal Justice Inspection (CJINI) last week, he was told that there are now 120 women in prison here, more than half of whom are on remand."
Mrs Long said: "There are a number of reasons why there are more women in prison today as opposed to during the pandemic. First of all, there was a concerted effort to remove people from the prison system during the pandemic, and many people have brought cases forward post pandemic that might otherwise have happened during that period. That is one reason: delay. The second reason is the economic crisis. Many of the women who are committed to our care will be guilty of acquisitive crime. It may be drugs-related or it may be out of desperation, but it will often lead people to be in the criminal justice system. Therefore, the increase in numbers, I suppose, tallies with that.
"However, there is a wider issue that the Member hints at, and that is the number of people in the prison system more generally who are on remand. The Criminal Justice Board is doing a bespoke piece of work to look at the reasons for remand, because the numbers seem to be incredibly high."
She continued: "They are incredibly high throughout the UK, but they are higher in Northern Ireland. We need to look at the reasons why people are committed to prison rather than given community-based sentences, and, as a Department, we are also looking at how we can build more confidence in community-based sentences that will allow judges not to send people to prison where a potentially better alternative rehabilitation measure may exist in the community."
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