Ms Baird acknowledged that Conditional Cautions were not new.
"Conditional Cautions have been available for some time and they have been used in some places more than others – I think the stars are Lancashire Constabulary who have used them most to very good effect.

"What we are doing is a new application of it to the specific Together Women Project (TWP),"said Ms Baird.

Asked whether imprisonment could have a more detrimental effect on women than men, Ms Baird said: "Yes, on some women. No-one is suggesting that someone like Rosemary West should not be in custody. Where people are dangerous and violent, the usual criteria, then clearly women or men have got to be in custody to protect the public.

"But there is quite a bit of research to suggest that about half of women who are in prison have suffered from domestic violence, about a third have suffered from sexual abuse either in childhood or adulthood and obviously there is an overlap there, sexual violence and domestic violence going together.

"Large numbers of them have mental health problems of one kind or another. Large numbers of them, far larger than men, have an addiction problem with either drink or drugs in the year preceding them coming in to prison and often when they come in.

"Another factor is that something like 80 per cent of women who are in custody are in custody for less than a year for non-violent offences, predominantly shoplifting, cheque and minor fraud."

On whether Conditional Cautions were more effective in dealing with women offenders, Ms Baird stressed: "I think the point is if factors are influencing women into crime then the best way to get them out of crime is to tackle those factors.

"If we can get women to have their needs assessed so that we pick out those factors – all of them because women have multiple problems – and sort out their needs in terms of getting rid of those factors then we ought to be putting people on the road to rehabilitation.

"I think it is important to note that the Conditional Caution will only be able to require a woman to go and have her needs assessed by the Together Women Project (TWP).

"You would not be able to use a Caution to tell a woman she has to go for two years' counselling. But TWP are very confident from their experience over past years that when somebody has their needs assessed they usually retain their interest in getting treated."

Asked whether jailing a mother had a bigger impact on her family than a father, the Solicitor General said: "It is undoubtedly the case that far larger numbers of women are primary carers for children when they go into prison than men and consequently it follows there will be a bigger impact generationally.

"I think the figures show a very large percentage of women in custody are mothers and quite a large percentage are mothers of under fives and are primary carers."

Asked whether six months was a sufficiently long trial to assess the effect on breaking a woman's cycle of crime, Ms Baird said: "Well I think it is fairly realistic to see if it is going to be taken up in that time and what TWP make of its potential. We could not pilot it for long enough to be certain that rehabilitation had occurred.

"We have to rely on TWP understanding what they can do for women and being able to predict that if they are satisfactorily assessing them they will be able to treat and that ought to help.

"It is the take-up that we are piloting."

Ms Baird said the trial would reveal whether they could get the police and CPS to use the Conditional Caution and for the right people, whether people would respond.

Leeds launch of scheme to keep women out of jail

The Solicitor General said because there was a higher incidence of sexual abuse, addiction and domestic abuse affecting women than men, a better result from Conditional Cautions which addressed such problems was more likely with women.

"There will be vulnerable men who have suffered from some of these factors who are tossed into crime from the chaos produced in their lives, but you can perhaps do more experimentally like this with women who are not perceived as dangerous sex offenders.

If it starts to work for women then you can read it across to men with relative safety."

On whether Conditional Cautions would be more cost effective than prison, the Solicitor General added: "I think they are probably as cost effective now."


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