Catherine McKinnell has opened three Intensive Supervision Courts for women, taking the number operating across England and Wales to seven.
The new courts in West Yorkshire, Merseyside and Northumbria are designed for lower-level offenders whose crimes are linked to problems such as addiction and trauma.
Judges will monitor progress more closely than under a conventional community sentence and can require tagging, drug or alcohol treatment and trauma-informed support.
The model seeks to reduce reoffending while reserving custody for people who pose a risk to the public. Ministers say it also supports efforts to reduce the number of women, particularly mothers of young children, sent to prison.
Government material cites overseas evidence from the United States indicating that comparable approaches reduced reoffending by around a third. That figure is not yet an evaluation of the three new English courts.
The expansion will now provide further evidence about whether intensive judicial oversight and treatment can improve outcomes in the domestic justice system.
