NCJ Number
176236
Date Published
1998
Length
186 pages
Annotation
Data are tabulated on the population of, receptions into, and discharges from Prison Service establishments in England and Wales in 1997 and during the previous decade.
Abstract
Statistics cover the prison population by year and sex of prisoner, the proportion of persons sentenced for indictable offenses, prison receptions, sentence length, the average population in custody, the sentenced population, fine defaulters, and noncriminal prisoners. Statistics are also provided on remand prisoners, young offenders under sentence, adult prisoners under sentence, life sentence prisoners, ethnic group and nationality of the prison population, prison conditions and costs, offenses and punishments, and reconvictions of prisoners discharged from prison in 1994. Data indicate the average population in custody in 1997 totaled 61,114. The prison population in 1997 was 11 percent more than the average prison population in 1996. The average remand population in 1997 totaled 12,130, 4 percent more than in 1996 but less than the average for 1994 when 12,360 prisoners were held on remand. The sentenced population rose by 12 percent between 1996 and 1997, from an average 43,040 to 48,410. Also between 1996 and 1997, female prisoners increased in number by 19 percent, from an average 2,260 in 1996 to 2,680 in 1997. Male prisoners increased by 10 percent, from 53,020 to 58,440. Between 1996 and 1997, the greatest increases in the number of sentenced prisoners were among those sentenced for burglary and drug offenses. Over the 10-year period between 1987 and 1997, longer sentence prisoners (over 4 years) tended to increase as a proportion of all sentenced prisoners. In 1997, there were 120 prisoners for every 100,000 members of the general population, more than most other European countries including Germany and France but less than the United States and Russia. Tables and figures