What is certain is that simply decanting women from a not-fit-for-purpose Holloway up the road to institutions in leafier Surrey will not do enough to reduce the needless use of imprisonment for women. Do we really need women’s prisons on this scale at all? Small custodial units could be developed for the few women who have committed serious and violent offences. The substantial sum raised from the sale of the prison could be invested in community sentences and women’s centres - not just funnelled down the prison building drain.