April 25, 2008: Prison Population Breaks Record

As of today, there are more people in prison in England and Wales than at any previous point. HM Prison Service have reported that the total of prisoners hit an all-time high of 82,319. This is 139 more than the previous record, which was set two months ago.

England and Wales has the highest (proportional) prison population in Western Europe. However, it looks relatively small when compared with the number of prisoners in the USA. With 5 percent of the world’s population, the USA locks up nearly a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Almost 2.3 million citizens are behind bars in America.

Even though China is around four times larger, in terms of its population, than the USA, it locks up the significantly smaller total of 1.6million citizens.