We believe that prison should be a measure of last resort and consider that the number of women in prison is a shocking sign of unnecessary cruelty.
Prison is a blunt and ugly tool for dealing with social problems.
It is a shattering punishment not just to an offender but to her children. No statistics can adequately illuminate the grief caused to these and others who bear no responsibility for the crimes for which these women have been sentenced. The Religious Society of Friends has long been concerned with prison conditions and attitudes within the criminal justice system. It is high time that further consideration is given to alternative sentencing. Nothing we have seen justifies the continuance, unchanged, of the present system.