Female offenders will be transferred to the prison closest to their family home under reforms to be unveiled on Friday by the justice minister Lord McNally. A planned overhaul of the rehabilitation system will see 12 women's prisons in England turned into resettlement prisons, allowing offenders to maintain close ties with their family in an effort to reduce reoffending rates.

McNally, the minister responsible for female offenders, said: "When a female offender walks out of the prison gates, I want to make sure she never returns. Keeping female prisoners as close as possible to their homes, and importantly their children, is vital if we are to help them break the pernicious cycle of reoffending.

"And providing at least a year of support in the community, alongside the means to find employment on release, will give them the best possible chance to live productive, law-abiding lives."

The reshaping of women's prisons is one of the reforms to be unveiled by ministers following criticism that female offending is "an afterthought" in plans to transform rehabilitation.

In a critical report released in July, MPs on the Commons justice committee said successive governments had ignored issues blighting women offenders and had failed to curb patterns of reoffending.

Under the measures, offenders will be given tailored support for 12 months after their release and low-risk female inmates will be offered "genuine employment opportunities" before leaving prison.

The Ministry of Justice said it was considering the launch of a business at HMP Styal, in Cheshire, to provide training and employment for offenders. The ministry said it was attempting to tackle mental health issues affecting women in prison by creating four personality disorder treatment services with the NHS.

The proposals were met with disappointment from judicial reform charities. "It's a terrible wasted opportunity," said Frances Crook, of the Howard League for Penal Reform. "They could have closed the women's prisons altogether and invested the money into women's centres."

Crook said the vast majority of women in prison – estimated at more than 4,000 – were on remand or serving a sentence under 12 months, so proposals to move offenders close to home would affect only a fraction of those in jail.

In a report on female offending in 2007, Lady Corston recommended that a number of smaller units be set up across England and Wales, which would move offenders closer to their families than under the current system of 12 prisons in England and none in Wales.

Rachel Halford, director of the support group Women in Prison, welcomed the government action, but said it was unclear how the proposals would work in practice. "If everything works that is being promised, of course this would be fantastic," she said. "My question is, how is the government going to get them closer to home when there are only 12 prisons? We want them to provide support for mental health, domestic violence, low education levels – all of these different hurdles that face women in prison."

The Women's Justice Taskforce has called for an urgent rethink of how female offending is tackled by government. he average cost of a place in a women's prison is £56,145, according to its estimates, compared to between £10,000 and £15,000 for an intensive community order.