Scotland's prison population yesterday reached a record high of 7497, with young offenders and those on remand accounting for the bulk of the latest increase.

The average population of the country's prisons - estimated last year provisionally at 7111 - is up more than 9% on the 2005 figure of 6792.

There are also more than 200 prisoners currently on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) - which means they are serving the remainder of their sentence tagged at home. Without HDC the population would be at 7700. The new population high comes as a report reveals growing concern about the lack of support provided to female prisoners when they are released back into the community.

The report, entitled What Life After Prison, was conducted by Circle, a charity which works with children and families affected by drug misuse.

The study, which reveals that women are leaving prison with insufficient help to prevent them returning to a life of crime, will be launched today at Stirling University.

Most women walk out of Scotland's all-female jail with no home to go to and just £47 and a travelcard in their pocket.

They said they feared returning to their "old ways" once released because there was so little support for them - particularly those with drug misuse problems.

Tackling reoffending is a key target of the executive, however, there are just over 6700 places in Scotland's jails, making overcrowding a growing concern for prison chiefs and a major hindrance to rehabilitation programmes.

Alongside its burgeoning overall population, Scotland has one of the fastest-growing female prisoner populations in Europe, despite repeated promises from ministers to reduce the problem.

In the past 10 years, it has more than doubled. Last year, the population of women behind bars reached 365. On the same day in 2002, there were 273 women in jail. There are currently 375 women in Cornton Vale.

Criminal justice experts say the overall figures, which come amid falling crime rates, indicate that Scotland is becoming increasingly punitive, while opponents say the figures undermine promises from a litany of ministers to cut the prison population.

The prison service is planning to build two new jails - one at Addie-well in West Lothian and the other on the site of the existing Low Moss Prison in Bishopbriggs, north of Glasgow. When both are complete there will be room for an extra 1400 prisoners. In addition, developments are planned at four other prisons, which will create more spaces.

Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, last week announced a new 700-prisoner publicly run jail will be built in the North-east to replace Peterhead and Aberdeen prisons.

He has insisted that prison should not lock up the "flotsam and jetsam" and pledged to establish an independent commission to consider how imprisonment is currently used in Scotland.

"I think there is something manifestly wrong in Scotland when, compared with 20 years ago, the number of crimes committed has fallen by 40,000 but our prison population has increased by almost one-third," he said.