The female prison population has increased by more than 150 per cent in 15 years, so the Government has announced a plan to try reduce reoffending.

Fewer women will be sent to prison under a new programme to try and curb growth in crime among Kiwi females.

Corrections Minister Louise Upston launched the women's strategy at Christchurch Women's Prison on Monday. It aims to reduce reoffending among women by 25 per cent.

Main components of the strategy included sending fewer women to prison, providing accommodation for women on remand and training offenders for jobs.​

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF Christchurch Women's Prison inmates at a yoga class on Monday, the day the Department of Corrections' new women's strategy was launched at the prison.

The female prison population has increased by more than 150 per cent since 2002 when there were 275 female prisoners in New Zealand.

There were now 739 female prisoners spread across three prisons: Auckland Region Women's Corrections Facility (ARWCF), Wellington's Arohata and Christchurch Women's. More than half of the women prisoners were Maori.

The strategy said women's pathways to offending often differed from men's, which meant the responses to it also needed to differ.

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF Corrections Minsiter Louise Upston launched the strategy, which aims to curb the growth of crime among Kiwi women.

Probation officers' reports to the courts would have "greater emphasis on identifying and understanding women's circumstances" so that more convicted women were sentenced to home detention rather than prison.

In the strategy document, Corrections chief executive Ray Smith said the justice system had been built around male offenders' needs, but research had shown women responded differently to treatment and management.

"Our women's strategy redresses that imbalance, based on international best practice and our own research into what works best.

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF The female prison population has increased by more than 150 per cent since 2002 when there were 275 female prisoners in New Zealand.

"It recognises that women have different needs to men and sets out a new approach for Corrections that will give women the treatment, encouragement, counselling, skills and support they need to shape better futures for themselves, their children and families."

Upston denied the strategy meant more lenient punishment for women.

"Women will often have more responsibility in terms of raising their families so that's a more significant need than others," she said.

"The reality is the women's strategy is about dealing with the realities, for example, of childcare. So if there are programmes that are scheduled, taking into consideration some of the practical challenges of those with children.

"So not having things start at 8.30 in the morning if offenders are trying to get their kids off to school and the same time finishing at 2.30pm so they can pick them up.

"This is all about making sure that women actually finish the programmes and finish their sentences and comply. So it's about making it easier for them to do that."

Providers had been contracted to provide supported accommodation outside of prison for women on remand, who would be electronically monitored, the strategy document said. The service, Community Alternatives, would cost $2.2m over three years.

The strategy also aimed to train convicted women for jobs in the construction industry, hairdressing, beauty therapy and hospitality, with more options possible in the future.

Four counsellors had been employed to work one-on-one with women who were suffering from the ongoing effects of trauma.

Other programmes on offer from the strategy were teaching women about cooking, budgeting, road safety and obtaining a driver's license, violence prevention and parenting.

Many of the social programmes were already in place in women's prisons, but would be boosted with the strategy and would target the substantial mental health and substance abuse problems that were widespread among the prisoners.

According to Corrections, 62 per cent of women in prison had both mental health and substance disorders in their lifetime, compared to 41 per cent of the male prison population.

Seventy-five per cent of women in prison in the last year had diagnosed mental health problems, compared to 61 per cent of male prisoners.

Corrections also monitored 6000 women outside of prison, such as those who were being electronically monitored or completing community work sentences.