All girls under 17 will be moved by the end of the year

According to the Prison Reform Trust (PRT), the number of women in jail this week was 4,477, beating the previous highest total by 32.

The trust said almost half of the 17 female prisons were overcrowded, adding that few women offenders were a "real risk" to the public.

The number of women inmates has soared 40% in five years but re-offending figures from 1998 showed 52% still committed a crime within two years of release, said a spokesman.

"For all but the most serious and violent offenders, support and supervision centres in local communities offer the best chance for women offenders to get out of trouble and take responsibility for their lives," said PRT director Juliet Lyon.

EIGHT 'OVERCROWDED' JAILS Buckley Hall (Lancashire) Cookham Wood (Kent) Eastwood Park (Gloucestershire) Highpoint South (Suffolk) Holloway (London) Low Newton (Durham) New Hall (West Yorkshire) Styal (Cheshire)

A move which could relieve the pressure is the decision by the Youth Justice Board to remove all young girls from prisons in England and Wales by the end of the year.

But the board said its plan to move girls aged 16 and younger was being frustrated by an increase in the number of teenagers being jailed.

'Grossly inadequate'

The pledge, made last month, came after a report from the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Anne Owers, who said staff at Holloway in north London were not trained to deal with the girls.

Ms Owers said the premises appeared to be infested and the regime "grossly inadequate".

At Holloway, women inmates had poor access to showers and parts of the jail were plagued by cockroaches, the inspectors reported.

Staff suspected some units were also infested with lice and fleas, the report added.

The inspection was made last July, when the prison held 12 girls aged under 18 and a further 53 young women aged 18 to 21.

Since then, all 15-year-old girls have been removed from prisons.

Support group Women in Prisons has said the problem of overcrowding at women's prisons lay with judges and magistrates jailing too many women for minor offences.