An election candidate for a North-East constituency, containing three prisons, will discuss alternatives to custody with a Home Office minister today.

Roberta Blackman-Woods, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate to replace Durham MP Gerry Steinberg, is meeting prisons minister Paul Goggins.

Ms Blackman-Woods is concerned that too many women are unnecessarily jailed for relatively minor offences in the area's two female prisons.

She plans to raise issues of concern with Mr Goggins.

"With three prisons located in the constituency I'm keen to hear the minister's views on alternatives to custody," said Ms Blackman-Woods.

"I am particularly concerned that custody is too often imposed when more appropriate measures are available."

She said an example is the jailing of women shoplifters which not only separates them from their families but can puts them at risk of "a spiral of offending".

She said: "At the same time, the children of these families become the victims, denied the guardianship of their mother and forced into a system of local authority care.

"Custody may be a short-term answer, but the long-term costs to society are phenomenal."

"Women should be punished, but not with custody unless other avenues have been fully exhausted.

"We must actively seek more appropriate alternatives to custody, which are not counter productive and do not lead to a lifetime of re-offending."

Ms Blackman-Woods was recently selected by members to succeed Mr Steinberg as the party's candidate at the next election.

He is standing down at the election after four terms.