Locking up women is often not the most effective way to deal with female offending, writes Lucy Adams

Tracey Coutts is enjoying life as a mother and, like most women, has found it a bit of a struggle to begin with. As well as all the nappy changing and sleepless nights, she has also had to come to terms with bringing up her baby daughter while in the custody of Her Majesty's Prison service.

"It's really tough as you feel like you're totally on your own," she explains, five-month-old Kierra gurgling in her arms. "My mum works full-time and lives a long way away so there is no-one to take her while I take a shower.

"It's a struggle and the cells are really pretty small. I was in prison in Derby when she was born and they had full-time nannies there, but here you feel like you're totally on your own."

Kierra is one of five babies currently living inside Cornton Vale. The oldest is 14 months, the youngest four days. Childcare in prison seems inappropriate, but it is ultimately considered the lesser of two evils as it allows mother and newborn to stay together, particularly if the prisoner is shortly due for release.

It is one of several uncomfortable realities about imprisoning women.

Others were highlighted in a recent report by Dr Andrew McClellan, the chief inspector of prisons, which revealed that 98% of female prisoners have drug addiction problems, 80% have mental health problems and 75% have a history of abuse and very poor physical health.

Mothers are rigorously assessed and regularly drug-tested and the prison service takes the advice of social work on who should or should not be allowed to bond with their newborn children behind bars. Those who test positive immediately have their offspring removed. Few children are allowed to stay beyond 18 months as it is deemed inappropriate.

For the babies spending their first months in Cornton Vale, family visits can be arranged in the toy-filled grey chapel within the prison grounds.

But for women like Coutts, whose family is from Aberdeen, travelling to Cornton Vale, on the outskirts of Stirling, can be an arduous journey not helped by the public transport links.

In the future, women like her could serve their sentence closer to home, making visits and consistent contact with housing and health agencies far easier under plans to make prisons more "community-facing".

Research indicates that good familial relationships, housing and employment are key factors in reducing reoffending. Becoming a parent is also a significant factor.

"In future, one of the benefits of community-facing prisons would be in making it easier for family visits," says Ian Gunn, governor of Cornton Vale.

"Prison is not the right place for many of these women and is not the right place for someone because they are trying to kill themselves. But in certain instances the sheriff sees this as the safest place for them and sometimes I would have to agree.

"When I was governor of Aberdeen we had a small number of women there. The advantage was that some of them could get visits every day, but it was very restricted in terms of programmes. The downside is the numbers. Because there are so few women prisoners they make up the minority. We have to make sure they still get the access to work and programmes they need."

In 2012 HMP Grampian, a prison with 500 places, is to open for the full range of offenders: male and female, old and young.

It marks a change from the current regime of specialist prisons such as Cornton Vale, which caters specifically for women, and Peterhead, which looks after sex offenders.

"Women offenders are not too different from male offenders," explains Mr Gunn, "But it tends to be a bigger problem for women finding themselves in custody as they tend to be the ones who pay the bills and do the shopping and keep the family together."

The fence around Cornton Vale provides much less security than the barbed-wire fortifications surrounding most of Scotland's prisons. As we walk through the grassy grounds of the complex Mr Gunn explains that, on the whole, women don't try to escape.

Last year EU-funded research by the late Dr David Shewan of Glasgow Caledonian University revealed that some women were in fact choosing to go to Cornton Vale because the problems faced on the outside were so enormous they considered prison a "refuge".

The report, which involved in-depth interviews with inmates, staff and the Cornton Vale prison governor, also found that women had "committed crimes (including fireraising) within prison so as to actually avoid release".

A decade ago Henry McLeish, then the home affairs minister, pledged to halve the number of women jailed in Scotland by the year 2000. The population, which was then 184, has more than doubled.

Mr McLeish also wanted to eliminate the imprisonment of women under 18. Despite this, women as young as 15 are still held at Cornton Vale when there is nowhere else for them to go.

Earlier this month the Scottish Prisons Commission, chaired by Mr McLeish, fell short of calling for Cornton Vale to be emptied, but made it clear that far too many women and short-term offenders are being incarcerated.

"Increased use of prisons is the result of using it for those who are troubled and troubling rather than dangerous," he said.

Scotland has one of the fastest growing female prisoner populations in Europe, despite repeated promises from ministers to reduce the problem.

Last month it peaked with 415 women behind bars. In 2002 there were 273 women in jail.

Most women leave Scotland's all-female jail with no home to go to and, depending on their age, just £47 and a travelcard.

Under the Prisons Commission's recommendations there would be a prison population of 5000 rather than the current record high of 8105.

"The Scottish Prison Service may be talking about this for the long-term future, but I would advocate introducing community prisons now," says Andrew Coyle, professor of prison studies at King's College London.

"It is an idea which has been around for a long time in other jurisdictions and has been used very effectively in Finland.

"There is always a dilemma about where to house female prisoners because of their numbers. Men make up 96% of the prison population. Experience indicates that they can get a raw deal if placed in small units alongside male prisoners. The best option would be to create small free standing units for women near to where they are from."

Cost may be the impediment to such units, but that may depend on how closely the commission's recommendations are followed.

Coutts says that being closer to her mother and getting more visits would help but that ultimately having Kierra has made the difference. "Having her has totally changed my life," she says. "It has given me a point to focus on. All my charges have been drugs charges, but I've got to put all that behind me to look after her."