For too many women, prison is “as good as it gets”.

New research based on interviews with 80 female prisoners in Western Australia reveals most of these women were “criminalised” by circumstances outside their control before they became offenders.

They were victims of multiple forms of abuse, including family violence. The trajectory of their lives meant jail was almost unavoidable.

In turn, prison became a refuge from all the problems that helped put them there in the first place.

Internationally, women make up between 2% and 9% of the total prison population in most countries. Australia sits at the higher end with just over 8% of inmates being female – 3,426 people as of December 2024.

Across the globe, the numbers and rates of women in prisons are growing faster than those of men.

We see the same trend in Australia, especially in WA. Between December 2022 and 2024, the female imprisonment rate increased by 25%. The state has the highest rate of........

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