Justice Secretary Chris Grayling should read this woman's tragic prison tale But what happened next I believe raises serious questions about how that crime was punished. Once inside, she started self-harming. That rapidly progressed to attempted suicide. When Ms Beswick got out, she tried desperately to repay the money but was unable to, so she was summoned back to court. A second prison sentence was handed down - this time for even longer - a year. In August 2010 a prison officer found her lying under her bed - unresponsive. Apparently when she could no longer face the world, she would hide under her bed. She was taken to hospital, and was eventually discharged. But the doctor warned she was at high risk of self-harm and needed constant monitoring. Back in prison she was observed every hour, but that proved insufficient. Later that same month she was found unconscious in her cell, her shoelaces tied around her neck. The jury said at Ms Beswick's inquest yesterday that they'd like to "express concern over the lack of communication between the hospital and prison, and within the prison." Her mother tells tonight's Channel 4 News. I just don't want anybody else to go through what we've been through, especially children...it's terrible. It's the complete system to blame...They put her in prison twice for the same offence and then to kill herself...nobody should be made to suffer like that...nobody. There are currently nearly 4,000 women behind bars in England and Wales. More than eight out of 10 have, like Ms Beswick, been convicted of non-violent crimes. And many, like her, have young children. The Prison Reform Trust - which last week launched a parliamentary campaign to highlight the excessive impact a jail term has on women and their families - says women in prison are nearly twice as likely to suffer from depression as male prisoners, and are 10 times more likely than men to self-harm once they're inside. That's despite representing just five per cent of the prison population. Had Ms Beswick been punished with a community order or suspended sentence rather than being returned to jail, her life might have been spared. And the taxpayer would have been spared tens of thousands of pounds too, because the average cost of imprisoning a woman is nearly £42,000 a year, compared to £15,000 for a community order. I'm not denying stealing £20,000 is a serious crime. But having been to jail once already, a second prison sentence is hard to understand. The justice minister Helen Grant has promised that in future women should receive "targeted support to break the cycle of offending." She wants judges to have credible alternatives to custody. With the numbers of women in jail now double what it was 15 years ago, those credible alternatives need to be rushed forward. A Government review of the issue is published in the summer. It's possible ministers may get radical, and recommend the closure of several women's prisons. I'm not holding my breath though. Although the justice secretary Chris Grayling said this week the Conservatives were "no longer simply the party of hanging and flogging," his words and deeds since his appointment - just last week promising to make jail tougher for inmates, for example - reveal where his instincts really lie. I suspect sending fewer women to prison or abolishing most women's prisons altogether simply isn't in his political DNA.