In 2009, the Thai government, prodded by Princess Bajrakitiyabha, an advocate for female prison reform, submitted a resolution to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, that detailed the vulnerability of women incarcerated in a system built principally for men.
[2] On 22 December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to adopt the Bangkok Rules, which encouraged member states "to adopt legislation to establish alternatives to imprisonment and to give priority to the financing of such systems, as well as to the development of the mechanisms needed for their implementation.
In the US, for example, the number of incarcerated women has grown at roughly twice the rate for men, multiplying by almost a factor of seven in the last three decades.
There are also cases of women prisoners being forced into a position of providing sex for favours or preferential treatment.
Alternatives to imprisonment—such as community service—have been shown to be much more effective in reducing recidivism and promoting lasting rehabilitation.