London, UK – An investigation published by openDemocracy reveals that women are disproportionately held in pretrial detention in England and Wales.
This comes amid a sharp rise in the number of people detained awaiting trial or sentencing, resulting from a record backlog of cases in the courts.
According to Ministry of Justice data analyzed by the website,
more than 17,000 of the approximately 87,000 prisoners in England and Wales were in pretrial detention as of June 2025.
This represents one-fifth of the prison population and a 44% increase over ten years. In contrast, the total prison population rose by only 2%.
Overcrowding and poor living conditions
The investigation reveals that a quarter of women in prisons are held in pretrial detention, compared to 19% of men.
This is despite the fact that the majority of women detained are charged with non-violent offenses.
The latest figures indicate that approximately 60% of women imprisoned in pretrial detention
between October 2023 and June 2025 were accused of non-violent crimes.
In some prisons, the proportion of those held in pretrial detention exceeds half the total prison population.
Prisons such as Leeds and Lewes recorded rates as high as 70%, according to official inspection reports.
The data also showed that detention conditions in these prisons were
among the worst in terms of overcrowding and poor living conditions.
Although the UK bail law stipulates that defendants should be released pending trial except in specific circumstances,
the investigation indicated that this principle is being applied with increasing frequency.
This is particularly true for women.
Previous research has shown that two-thirds of women held in pretrial detention
are either later acquitted or receive a non-custodial sentence.
A crisis in the justice system
Human rights organizations have warned of the serious psychological effects of pretrial detention, particularly on women.
Women account for 38% of self-harm incidents among those held in pretrial detention, despite representing only 5% of this group.
For its part, the Ministry of Justice acknowledged a crisis in the justice system,
indicating that the government is seeking to address the problem through new legislation.
This legislation aims to reduce the use of pretrial detention and expand the use of electronic monitoring.
Experts attribute this increase to the backlog of cases in the Crown Court,
which exceeded 79,000 pending cases by December 2025.This is compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,
strikes, lengthy sentences, and a lack of community-based alternatives to detention.
