I am writing to draw your attention to a growing problem.

The female prison population has more than doubled in the last ten years and there are currently more than 4,000 women behind bars in England and Wales. The majority of these are mentally-ill, in debt, addicted to drugs, poorly educated or have suffered sexual or physical abuse. Most are not dangerous or violent - in fact shoplifting was the biggest single reason that women were jailed in 2002.

Routinely locking up increasing numbers of women is not keeping us safe from crime in the long run. Eight out of ten female shoplifters are reconvicted within two years of leaving prison. And it is not just the women themselves who suffer. Nearly 18,000 children are separated from their mothers each year through imprisonment.

There are alternatives. Community programmes are working to tackle the reasons women are offending in the first place such as drug abuse or poverty. But such alternatives are few and far between.

If we are serious about tackling this problem we need to invest in solutions that change behaviour and cut crime instead of locking up more and more women who are desperate and vulnerable rather than inherently bad.