This was "the most dangerous time". Then she was sentenced to 10 months' jail. More women are being locked up in Australian prisons than ever before. The incarceration rate for women is rising twice as fast as for men, surging by nearly 40 per cent since 2005, compared to 18 per cent for men, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures. In both Queensland and the Northern Territory the imprisonment rate has risen more than eight times faster for women than for men. Nationally, women now make up 8 per cent of the prison population.

But as the numbers soar, a range of lawyers, professors and justice advocates argue prison is the last place most female inmates should be. "We should be looking at closing all female prisons, except for perhaps one," says Mirko Bagaric, a chair of Deakin University Law School in Victoria. "Female over-imprisonment is a blight on our sentencing system and one of the most gratuitous human rights violations currently in Australia." Prison doesn't make you a better person. It makes you a better criminal. Bianca Professor Bagaric believes Australia imprisons too many men and women, but on average women should receive 75 per cent lighter sentences for the same crimes.

"Equality with a vengeance" he says has prevented judges acknowledging the distinct profile of female offenders: their lower reoffending rates, greater caregiving responsibilities, increased suffering in jail and histories of trauma. Most women in jail could safely serve their sentences in the community instead, according to the peak body for lawyers, the Law Council of Australia. UNSW criminologist Eileen Baldry has watched the rate of female incarceration in NSW treble since starting in her field in the 1980s. Much of the increase has been concentrated among Indigenous women, who went from less than 4 per cent of the female prison population to about 34 per cent. "That rise has been extraordinary and in many ways unconscionable," Professor Baldry says.

"By far the majority of women inmates could be supported outside prison." Nearly three-quarters of the increase since 2005 has been for non-violent crimes such as property, drug and traffic offences, according to figures from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. "The growth in female imprisonment is almost entirely due to increased policing and increased toughness on the part of the courts," BOCSAR director Don Weatherburn says. "It's not a crime-driven problem."

Two sets of figures tell the story. Firstly, the number of women charged with a crime has swelled by 46 per cent since 2005. At the same time, the percentage of convicted women being sent to prison has surged by nearly 50 per cent, rising in 12 of the 16 broad categories of crime. The effect is more obvious when it comes to "the more discretionary offences … like public order and traffic offences, which depend on how the police behave," Weatherburn says. For traffic offences, for example, the percentage of women imprisoned has soared by 47 per cent since 2005 – a stark contrast against the 20 per cent drop for men. Similarly, the imprisonment rate for public order offences has risen four times faster for women than for men, while for property damage the increase has been seven times faster.

Others point to the bigger social and economic picture. Research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that women entering prison are 30 per cent more likely to be unable to work due to disability or poor health than their male peers. They are 80 per cent more likely to have self-harmed, 40 per cent more likely to have been diagnosed with a mental illness and 35 per cent more likely to have injected drugs. Lana Sandas, chief executive of the Women in Prison Advocacy Network, says nine out of 10 of the network's clients have suffered sexual or physical assault, many as children. It doesn't excuse criminal behaviour, Sandas says, but for many women "the writing was on the wall that they would turn to drugs or alcohol".

When Bianca was using ice, she felt "invincible". She cared only about herself and her habit, not the slightest about the people from whom she stole. "It didn't matter to me if they couldn't eat that night or pay rent," she says. Having tried and failed rehabilitation before, she underwent a six month program offered only at Dillwynia women's jail in north-west Sydney. In time, she no longer woke up thinking "I need a shot". But Bianca says it was the first time she had been eligible for such rehabilitation in jail and most women missed out. Prisoners on remand have limited or no access to treatment programs, according to women's support groups.

Helen Campbell, chief executive of the Women's Legal Service NSW, is wary of approaching punishment along gender lines. "I'm not comfortable with this notion women are innately more noble, that we should be treated differently," she says. However, women have less access to rehabilitation and health services in prison, limited contact with their children and a lack of resources during pregnancy, Campbell says. "If I had one ask, it would be: Do not imprison a pregnant woman."

The Turnbull government's Minister for Women Michaelia Cash refused to be drawn on the issue of women in prison. NSW Justice Minister Troy Grant declined to be interviewed. A NSW government spokeswoman highlighted services aimed at women, such as the Mothers and Children custody program and Out of the Dark, which provides group therapy for domestic violence victims. The spokeswoman also noted that over the past five years the proportion of women who reoffend within 12 months had fallen from 41 per cent to 34 per cent. But high recidivism rates still form the basis of tired one-liners in jail, former inmates say.

"How long until you next visit?" a prison officer asked Bianca as she prepared to leave prison. "See you soon," other women hear from the guards. "I get there are repeat offenders," Bianca says. "But for them to make a joke of it … It's our life." Three months after leaving jail, Bianca says her life is split between cafe shifts in the morning and study for a youth work diploma in the afternoon. "It's the first time I can say my life is on track," she says. Although it was in jail she finally beat her addiction, she does not see incarceration as an answer to society's problems.

"Prison doesn't make you a better person," Bianca says. "It makes you a better criminal."