Vicky Pryce on women prisoners

Vicky Pryce, jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice, gave an interesting interview this morning on BBC Radio Four's Today Programme.

Most women were in prison because of something the men in their lives had done, she said. They were often:

'Vulnerable women who often have lost their self esteem - they could be prostitutes, they could be people who are stealing to feed their, but also their other-half's, drug habits.

'There's been a huge increase in the numbers of prisoners, although crime is going down.

'More than 50% of women who enter jail have been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused. And those are statistics quoted by everybody.

'Of course you are [responsible for your actions] and they were. The thing to remember is that they were very vulnerable at the time they were doing it and they remain vulnerable.

'The interesting thing is that jail doesn't do anything to take that away from them and they leave prison after a while, go back into society and they find themselves in exactly the same position and they re-offend.