The number of women and girls in prison, estimated to be more than 740,000, is increasing: between 2010 and 2020 there was a 17 per cent increase globally. Drug‐related offences are known to have a particular and disproportionate impact on women. In 2018 the United Nations estimated that 35 per cent of women in prison worldwide are imprisoned for drug offences, compared to 19 per cent of men.2 This proportion, however, increases dramatically in Latin American and Asian countries.
In Brazil, for example, 62 per cent of women in prison in 2017 were there because of drug‐related offences – compared to a quarter of men.3 This model for reform details how policy makers and criminal justice practitioners can respond effectively and positively to reduce the unnecessary imprisonment of women for drug‐related offences in line with international standards.
It draws on the report, Sentencing of women convicted of drug-related offences, which includes findings from a study of 18 jurisdictions undertaken by Linklaters LLP for Penal Reform International and co-published with the International Drug Policy Consortium. 5 Overall, the study found that women’s complex reasons and pathways into criminal justice systems for drug-related offences are not adequately reflected in legislation, sentencing guidelines where they exist, or sentencing practices across the 18 jurisdictions.
Women, drugs and prisons perilious pathways.
Women are rarely major players in the illegal drug trade. The increase in women’s imprisonment for drug‐related offences has been attributed, in part, to the greater ease with which low‐level crimes can be prosecuted, with women’s primary role in drug trafficking usually being that of a drug courier. This makes them typically easy targets for drug enforcement authorities, even though it does little to disrupt drug‐trafficking networks.
