Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has set out plans to slash the number of women going to jail and ultimately close women’s prisons amid an overcrowding crisis. She unveiled a new body, the women’s justice board, which will have the “ultimate ambition of having fewer women’s prisons” – potentially allowing them to be converted to male or mixed jails.

The prison population in England and Wales hit a record new high a fortnight ago, with 88,521 people behind bars – but there are just 3,440 women in jail.

More than half – 55 per cent – are victims of domestic abuse, while two-thirds have committed non-violent offences. Ministers want to improve services like community support and residential women’s centres to provide an alternative to prison.

It comes after the government said thousands of inmates would be freed early in a bid to ease overcrowding.

In her speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool, Ms Mahmood said that when she took over the ministerial role, the crisis had been just “one bad day from disaster”.

“Within minutes, I was told our justice system was on the point of collapse,” she said. “Within weeks, our prisons would overflow. Had that happened, the consequences would have been apocalyptic."

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