January 24, 2005: Prison Reform Trust Director Speaks

Commenting on the Home Office publication of long term prison population projections, Prison Reform Trust Director Juliet Lyon called on the Government to be ‘more robust in its efforts to drive down prison numbers and reduce social exclusion’. She commented:

"These revised Home Office projections are not as bad as they were and give the green light to improving community punishments rather than wasting public money increasing the number of prison places. But things are still not right. Twenty years ago the prison population was 46,000, ten years ago it was 66,000, now we can look forward to imprisoning up to 87,500 people by 2011. The startling increase is not in response to rising crime but to harsher sentences and the use of prison as a dumping ground for all those failed by other public services."

"Government could drive prison numbers right back down by diverting people who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs into the treatment they need, cutting any needless use of custodial remand, stepping up preventative work with children and families, improving community penalties for petty offenders, and the public and judicial confidence to go with it, and improving rehabilitation in prisons for serious offenders rather than simply increasing time behind bars."

On 21st January 2005 the prison population in England and Wales was 73,713. England and Wales has one of the highest imprisonment rates in western Europe. It has risen dramatically over the last five years. The number of prisoners in England and Wales has increased by more than 25,000 in the last ten years. The number of women in prison has more than doubled over the past decade.

In 2003-2004 it cost an average of £37,305 to keep a person in prison. Since 1995, over 15,200 additional prison places have been provided at a cost of more than £2 billion.