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Better Pathways - Integrated Response to Women's Offending and Reoffending

Why has Better Pathways been developed?

Better Pathways is a strategy developed to tackle the causes of women's offending and to try and help break the cycle of women's reoffending.

The number of women in prison in Victoria has more than doubled over the last decade. The current female prisoner population is around 260 compared with just over 100 in mid-1995.

The greatest increase occurred between 1998 and 2003 when the number of women sentenced or remanded in prison custody in Victoria increased significantly by 84 per cent - almost triple the growth in our male prisoner population over the same five-year period. 

The implications of women's imprisonment are far-reaching placing the state's women's prison system under unprecedented pressure. Social and economic costs are incurred not only by the community and the women themselves, but also by their families, particularly their children. Increasing numbers of affected Victorian children will experience dislocated and disadvantaged lives, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will be exposed to the criminal justice system later in life.