Great article on Comment is Free by Yvonne Roberts, one of the trustees of Women in Prison:

In 2009, the Ministry of Justice allocated over £15m to develop a range of services to divert women from custody – that is welcome (if funding is sustained) but it is loose change compared with the cost of keeping a growing number incarcerated at a price of £41,00 per year, per prisoner. If community-based punishment and a reduction in recidivism is to be achieved, that requires a proper investment with a view to the long-term savings not a cheap-rate move driven by cuts. Reducing the prison-building programme while offering inadequate community punishments and insufficient support to step through a door to a different life may put the public at risk, while exacerbating reoffending and setting penal reform back even further.