This report looks at the situation facing women in prison across some of the Council of Europe member states. Women face different challenges and have different needs from men in prison; these needs are all too often overlooked. Issues that are often (but not always) specific to women in prison are issues of: maternity and childcare; childhood or domestic abuse and violence; drug and alcohol abuse and addiction; and depression and self-harm.

One fundamental problem is that almost all prisons are built and designed with men in mind and this makes it very difficult for the needs of women in prison to be met. This can lead to discrimination.

This project set out to compare the situation of women in prison across the then 45 member states of the Council of Europe. This report shows our results and analysis of the situation. The report has been informed by prison visits, questionnaires returned from twenty-eight countries, the UK (England and Wales only) and the region administered by the UN of Kosovo and desk- based research.