There are currently around 79,000 prisoners in England and Wales. The overwhelming majority of them - around 75,000 - are male, and are serving time for a wide range of offences, most notably sexual offences, drug offences, possession of weapons and motoring offences.
Women are most represented amongst those serving time for fraud - making up 20 per cent of them. As home to some of the country's busiest courts, Greater Manchester processes a significant proportion of women offenders.
And the sentences these women receive often leads to heated debates in M.E.N comments sections between readers, with some claiming women 'get away with it' because of their gender.
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Among the women offenders to appear in courts recently was Natalie Warke, spared jail after being caught drug driving, as she was the sole carer for her 12-year-old son. Meanwhile, Kyliesha Knight-Greig, who hit a woman in the face with a bottle, escaped a prison term in order for her to rebuild her career as a carer.
And there was also the case of Shelby Gratty, who harassed a woman by making hoax calls to the fire service, but was given ‘one final chance’ as she was pregnant.
Each of these stories led to heated discussions between readers. Nonetheless, campaigners argue that it is too many women who are being sent to prison, and not too few.
Speaking to the M.E.N, a spokesperson for the group Women In Prison said: “The vast majority of women are sent to prison on a short sentence for a non-violent offence. The government’s own strategy acknowledges that most women in prison should not be there. Prison is a dead end, one that tears families and communities apart.
“Self-harm incidents in women’s prisons have continued to hit historic highs showing the decline in women’s mental health and serving as a reminder of the damaging impact prison has. Over a 6 month period two devastating reports have been published about deaths of babies in prison. We cannot continue to ignore this suffering.
“It doesn’t have to be like this. The Government can and must divert the £200m they have set aside for 500 new prison places to invest in community solutions, like Women Centres, instead. Here, women can be supported to tackle the issues that sweep them into crime in the first place, like mental ill-health and domestic abuse.”
Here, the M.E.N recaps in more detail on cases that raise questions about the impact of jailing women, the background to their offending, and the idea that there are gender-based sentencing disparities.
Natalie Warke
Natalie Warke was found to be 16 times the drug-driving limit after she used her car to ram her sister's vehicle up and down the street. The 41-year-old repeatedly smashed her VW Golf into the empty car before pushing it across a road junction during a family row with her eldest son and her sister.
As Warke emerged from her car to argue with relatives in the street during the 10am spectacle, stunned neighbours called the police. When they arrived at the scene in Levenshulme, they found the mum slumped at the wheel of the Golf.
Tests showed she had 800mg of Benzoylecgonine (BZE), the main metabolite of cocaine, in her blood. The limit is 50mg. She also had traces of cocaine itself in her system.
Warke, of Whalley Range, admitted dangerous driving, drug driving, and having no insurance, but walked free from Manchester Crown Court this week after a judge accepted a prison stretch would have a 'harmful effect' on her youngest son, aged 12.
In mitigation, defence counsel Andrew Molloy, said his client lived with her 12- year-old son who has special needs. "She is somewhat embarrassed about her performance that day," he said. "This incident arose out of an argument and domestic tiff she had with her sister.
'There were no pedestrians in the vicinity and very little in the way of traffic passing along the road. If she were to go to custody there would be repercussions for her son.''
Warke was sentenced to nine months jail, suspended for 15 months, and was ordered to complete 20 Rehabilitation Requirement Days. She was also banned from driving for two years.
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Kyleshia Knight-Greig
Kyleshia Knight-Greig attacked another Parklife festival reveller with a drinks bottle in a row over queue jumping. Mother-of-two Knight-Greig, of Wythenshawe, hit her victim in the face with the bottle, cutting her above the eye, after she was challenged about 'pushing in the queue'.
The women were ‘pushing and shoving’ before Knight-Grieg hit the other woman in the face. Fortunately the blow did not cause the bottle to smash.
However, in February Knight-Grieg, 30, was spared jail in order to rebuild her career caring for the elderly. She was also studying towards a degree in care.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Knight-Greig had grown up in care and suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of a prior violent relationship. She has since been suspended from her job working for Equilibrium Care as a result of the case.
Knight-Greig, of Yarmouth Drive, was handed a 12-month community order in which she must complete 20 days' rehabilitation and continue to engage with her local women's aid centre. Judge Bernadette Baxter said the community order was 'not a soft option' and went on to say: "I have no control over whether they [her employers] keep you on in your job.
"My hope is that this [the community order] enables you to continue working and studying. But that is a matter for your employer and your student body.
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Abbie Heaney
Abbie Heaney was caught twice driving at 16 times the legal drug drive limit. The qualified beauty therapist was spared jail, as a judge ruled she needed ‘help rather than punishment’.
Heaney, 31, was stopped at the wheel of her Vauxhall Astra after police suspected the vehicle was being used for drug dealing. Tests showed she had 800 micrograms of the cocaine metabolite Benzoylecgonine per litre of blood in her system. The legal limit is just 50mg.
Police also recovered a package of crack cocaine, which had been dumped by a passenger she had been chauffeuring. Manchester Crown Court heard that Heaney, from Bolton , had provided an identical drug driving reading the previous year but escaped with a £120 fine. She had also been given a suspended jail sentence after being caught smuggling drugs into a prison.
Heaney was spared jail by a judge in February after admitting drug driving and was instead handed a two-year community order after her lawyer said she had debts of more than £30,000, plus a cocaine habit dating back 15 years.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Kevin Liston said: ''She is a vulnerable individual who had a drugs debt and was told to take a package on instruction into prison on the condition some of her debt would be wiped clean. She currently has a drug debt of around £200 and payday loans debts of around £30,000.
"She is an isolated vulnerable young female who has had numerous traumas. She's been addicted to Class A drugs for the last 14 - 15 years and as a result has associated with the wrong crowd.”
Sentencing her, The Recorder of Manchester, Judge Nicholas Dean QC said: “The world you live in doesn't give you much in the way of opportunity to get out of the hole you have been in. But you are an intelligent young woman who knows the mess your life is in and I think you need help rather than punishment.”
Heaney, of Hough Lane, Bromley Cross, who was also banned from driving for three years, was ordered to complete a 12-month drug rehabilitation programme and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
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Shelby Gratty
Shelby Gratty repeatedly harassed a woman who she ‘did not know’. She ordered five takeaways to be delivered to the woman’s house and made a number of hoax calls to the fire service.
21-year-old Shelby Gratty, of Oak Tree Drive in Dukinfield , also bombarded the woman on Facebook, and when the victim blocked her, she created another account and messaged her again. Gratty had previous convictions for making nine hoax calls to the police when she sent officers to another complainant's address.
It was stated she had shown a private video of a man to his mother and his sisters and was serving a suspended sentence for a drugs offence, of which she still had one month to serve and had subsequently breached. She pleaded guilty to harassment of another and to sending false messages by public electronic communications network, causing annoyance and inconvenience and anxiety, and was remanded in custody at Styal Prison in Cheshire.
Defending, Mark Harper said Gratty was pregnant and that the five days she spent in Styal Prison had been a 'wake up call'. He said Gratty had described being in custody as the "worst five days of her life” and said she accepted her actions and use of social media had been "unacceptable", stating that she had mental health issues and had suffered domestic violence.
A judge gave her the benefit of the doubt in a hearing in October and gave her ‘one final chance’. She was sentenced to a 21 month sentence suspended for 24 months, 25 days Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days and 80 hours unpaid work.
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Holly Woods
Holly Woods was caught drug driving and told police she "couldn't be a****" to take roadside tests. She had been previously spared jail after ferrying £2,600 of cocaine and heroin to Cumbria. The 33-year-old said she had hidden the drugs in a bag on her little girl's car seat to pay off debts owed to her dealer.
A judge agreed to suspend her jail sentence in September 2020 "only because" of her five-year-old daughter, the Liverpool Echo reports . A second judge told her she belonged in prison, but again spared her jail after she skipped unpaid work sessions.
Then, a third judge gave Woods a final opportunity - because jailing her might mean her child going into care. Police spotted her "erratic" driving in a white Audi Q3 on Woolton Road, Wavertree, at around 10.15pm, on April 26 this year. They could smell cannabis ‘immediately’.
A blood sample later taken at a police station showed Woods had 94mg of "cocaine breakdown product" benzoylecgonine per litre of blood. The legal limit is 50mg. Woods, of Grange Lane, Gateacre, admitted drug driving and being in breach of her suspended sentence, imposed on November 6, 2020.
John Weate, defending, said she was the "sole carer" for her now six-year-old daughter, which she "juggles" with her hairdressing job. Woods cried as Recorder Corbett-Jones said: "What weighs most heavily on me is the impact it would have, of me sending you into custody, on your six-year-old child, who is expecting her mother to come home this evening.”
Woods was handed a 12-month community order, with a four-month home curfew, between 8pm and 6am daily, and a 15-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement. The judge banned her from driving for 12 months and warned: "You've come as close as you possibly could have done to going to custody today and you won't have another opportunity.
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Emma Berry
Emma Berry rifled through a homeless man’s pockets and stole his phone, cash and cigarettes after meeting him in the pub. The 34-year-old escaped jail after a court heard she had had an 'unenviable start in life', a string of abusive partners and addiction to crack cocaine.
The victim had met Berry at The Grapes in Eccles during the afternoon of New Year's Day in 2020. He estimated he had downed about eight pints when the pair left to go into Manchester city centre.
As the pair were walking toward Piccadilly Tavern, the victim recalled a man pushed him against a wall and then threatened him with a bottle before saying 'this is going to go over your head'. Berry then started to rifle through her victim's pockets, taking his phone valued at about £100, £23 in cash and cigarettes.
Police officers were quickly on the scene and arrested Berry nearby - she had the phone, cash and cigarettes. The accomplice, who appeared to have been recruited by Berry, has been identified by police as a homeless man, although he had not been located, the court was told.
Rachel White, defending, said her client had had 'an unenviable start in life' and now suffered from mental health problems - she had been diagnosed with personality disorder and PTSD. Woodward was said to be addicted to crack cocaine, which, Miss White said, had stemmed from a 'poor choice' of partners who have been violent, abusive and exploitative.
However, the court heard the defendant was now volunteering for a charity for the homeless and was getting help for her mental health problems. Berry, of Manchester Old Road in Middleton, was sentenced, in August last year, to 16 months in prison suspended for 18 months after she admitted a single charge of robbery. She was also ordered to carry out 25 days of rehabilitation activity
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Clair Woodward
Single mum Clair Woodward repeatedly stole from her elderly vulnerable neighbour. Woodward, 35, was spared jail because of the severe impact that it would have on her ten-month-old baby and other two children, Liverpool Crown Court heard last month.
On top of the theft, Woodward, from St Helens, was also loaned thousands of pounds by the kind-hearted victim due to her son suffering from severe ADHD. But she was given a suspended sentence despite the judge admitting her crimes were over the custody threshold 'by a country mile', and her victim saying she feared Woodward would not 'get the sentence she deserved' because of her children.
Woodward had befriended the woman and began helping her son with his education as he had learning difficulties. She then began cleaning for her and said she was short of money - so the victim began paying her.
Repeated requests were made to the woman’s bank for new bank cards which she had not made, with her post apparently opened to obtain a card and a pin. CCTV showed that Woodward made 16 unauthorised ATM transactions, often late at night after checking the balance, and had made three telephone banking transactions.
Woodward, of Cairn Court, Thatto Heath, St Helens , pleaded guilty to stealing £876, and fraud involving obtaining that money by false representation, between December 4 and 10, 2020. Kate Morley, defending, said that Woodward has no previous convictions and had had a series of abusive partners. She said the defendant’s reputation is in “tatters."
Miss Morley added that the defendant has mental health issues and suffers from depression and anxiety after domestic abuse. "She wasn’t stealing to fund a drug or alcohol habit, it was to buy groceries and food for her family and provide provisions for her baby,” she added.
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