WOMEN for Independence have called on the next government to cap the number of females in prison at 100.

Jail should be taken “off the menu for the lower courts” the group says, with more women diverted to other rehabilitation and support services.

Writing in their manifesto for May’s election, the pro-independence feminist group says: “Many – if not most – of the women currently in prison have themselves been victims of terrible crimes, and we would like to see more justice for victims, particularly around accessing legal support.

“For example, victims of rape and domestic abuse must be given legal representation if the person charged with attacking them seeks to have their private medical records included in evidence. Legal Aid must be available for this. The Scottish Government should legislate to make this change happen.”

For the manifesto, Women For Independence have been running a “listening exercise”, as they did in 2014 before the referendum. Hundreds have taken part in events around the country.

On health, they say there should be longer-term thinking and a consensus that allows the government to make policies safe in the knowledge they’ll be backed in the next term, regardless of who gets elected. After pleas for more support for mental health services and better community services for older people, they also encourage the next government to look at doing more to encourage volunteering. “We want a Scottish Parliament which values community integration and builds health from the bottom up. But communities rely on volunteers,” they write.

“We want the Scottish Government to give serious consideration to volunteering, and to move some of the obstacles that get in the way of people being active in their communities (such as long working hours, inflexible leave arrangements, etc). Some companies give their staff paid leave to do voluntary work – could Scotland have a national strategy to promote and incentivise ideas like this?”

They continue: “These strategies for creating a healthy Scotland will take longer than one term of government to implement and nurture. We need our Scottish Parliament to step above partisan divides and agree on longer-term strategies for Scotland. We’d like the Scottish Government to lead consensually on such goals.”

But the single biggest problem affecting Scotland health is poverty, the group says. Other calls in the manifesto include independence, land reform, a ban on fracking, and “a longer-term, non-partisan vision for ending poverty in Scotland.”

The group also calls for a more progressive approach to reproductive rights, saying: “When control of abortion legislation is transferred to the Scottish Parliament, there must be no changes detrimental to women’s current rights as an absolute minimum. We would like to see the Scottish Parliament use this power to take a more progressive approach to abortion legislation.”

Speaking on Broadcasting Scotland’s Full Scottish Breakfast, Women For Independence’s Kathleen Caskie said the current approach was all wrong: “I look at the paper and they say the election is about tax, or they say here’s a photocall, here’s Willie Rennie up a slide. In reality when we talked to women and when we listened to women they weren’t saying it’s about this, it’s an election, it’s a point in history. What women were starting to talk about was how do we change the way the world works, how do we build it from the bottom up.

“An election isn’t about the issues that some, usually white male, journalist has plucked out the air.”