Justice for whom?

This week, in response to a question from Labour MP Sandra Osborne, it was revealed that the number of women giving birth while in prison over the past four years has been on average somewhere between 100 and 110.

Some additional information would be useful, such as for what offences the women were committed, whether they were pregnant at the time of trial, and in how many cases a non-custodial sentence could have been possible and why this was not adopted.

There is the question of the innocent baby being put at disadvantage. If pregnancy means avoiding imprisonment, does this make discrimination as against men, if women are less likely to be be imprisoned for the same offence.

It could be said of being born in prison that if the mother is on drugs or otherwise of impaired ability to nurture a child, then in special prison circumstances the baby could fare better, if the length of imprisonment is brief.

On the question of inequality of treatment between the sexes, we already have a considerable variation of punishment in general between offenders for the same offence . This is partly due to judicial variation, but also in considering the effect on third parties, - a driver retains his driving licence because his old mother needs him to visit and public transport is impossible, or his company will not survive and others will become unemployed. It is not difficult to think of many more instances, even in serious cases such s rape where it is not clear whether consent was implied.