WOMEN who experience abuse need safe spaces, not cells, campaigners have warned, after a new inspectorate report published today exposed soaring levels of self-harm in women’s prisons.

Research across four prisons reported failures to provide inmates with adequate support and said there had been an over-reliance on using physical force to manage women in crisis. 

The report said visitors faced long, expensive journeys for short, inflexible visit sessions, making it hard for inmates to keep in contact with loved ones, while many spent long periods locked in their cell with nothing to do.