January 31, 2006: New Prison Information Bulletin

The Howard League for Penal Reform today launched the first in a series of new prison information bulletins. It  analyses the prison population and explains why it has reached record levels and what can be done to reduce it. The bulletin also breaks down the prison population into its component parts, shows sentencing trends, critiques current government policy and suggests how to re-orientate the criminal justice system to reduce crime. The bulletin reveals how:

• The Government has deliberately allowed the prison population to grow to record and unsustainable levels
• Prison costs the taxpayer £5.75m each day
• Changes to sentencing practice have resulted in over 20,000 more prison places being needed since 1994
• Over 40% of all children held in penal custody are officially considered by the authorities to be ‘vulnerable’

Howard League Director Frances Crook said:

“We want these bulletins to alert people to the human and financial costs of our obsession with locking people up. These show how politicians, judges and magistrates have created a juggernaut of imprisonment which will be difficult to halt. However, we welcome the Home Secretary's commitment to reduce re-offending and suggest that the only way to achieve this is by building on the firm foundations of successful probation supervision in the community and support for the many good schemes that manage offenders safely and turn around their lives. The only way to make sure that in the future there are fewer victims of crime is to use the effective community interventions. Prison will never work.”

Updated prison statistics are available on the Crimlinks home page.