Law Weblog

The prison debate…

Friday 2 February 2007 at 9:20 pm | In News | Post Comment

If we imprisoned offenders at the average rate (per 1,000 crimes) of EU members, the prison population would be 113,150 instead of 80,000.

Eight out of the fifteen members of the EU for which figures are available imprisoned offenders at a higher rate than England and Wales. The calculations are based on figures for 2003 (the latest available from the Council of Europe).

With a prison population in England and Wales of 80,000, if we imprisoned at the same rate as France, the prison population would be 91,113. If custody were used at the same rate as in Scotland, there would be 88,142 in jail.

Socialist Spain has the highest rate per 1,000 crimes and if her rate applied in England and Wales the prison population would be about 369,000.

Civitas report here