The United Kingdom has one of the highest rates of incarceration in western Europe: on average 109 people in every 100,000 are in prison, but far short of the 702 per 100,000 in the United States.

There are 139 prisons in England and Wales, with 19 built since 1995. Seven prisons are private: built under the Private Finance Initiative, they are termed DCMF prisons (privately Designed, Constructed, Managed and Financed) and revert to the government after 25 years. A further two prisons are privately managed but were built with public money. The remaining prisons are operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, an Executive Agency reporting to the Home Office. The prison population is split between local prisons, remand centres, training prisons, young offender institutes and open prisons.

In 2002 the average number of people in prisons in England and Wales was 70,860, up from 66,300 in 2001, and a doubling of numbers since 1992 (in 1900 there were 14,460 male prisoners, 2,980 female prisoners). In total 136,200 were received by the Prison Service. Of the prisoners averagely 12,790 were on remand, up 14% on 2001. Prisoners serving four year or longer sentences made up 48% of all sentenced prisoners. The capacity of prisons, Certified Normal Accommodation, on June 30, 2002 was 64,230. The excess over prison capacity led to the implementation of Operation Safeguard in July-December, the holding of prisoners in police station cells. The introduction of the Home Detention Curfew scheme in 2002 had only temporary effect.

In February 2003 the prison population stood at 72,144, of which 4,810 were serving life sentences (averaging 13 years), and there were 3,740 female prisoners. Of the prisoners 8,570 were termed young offenders. In 1991 it was 42,000 and in 1992 it was 45,800. The Home Office estimates that the prison population will rise to 84,000 by 2008. The cost per prisoner is £36,000 a year.

In crown courts in 2002 63% of those convicted were sent to prison (1992 45%), with an average sentence of 28 months, and 512 people were sentenced to life. In magistrates' courts 17% were imprisoned (1992 5%), although the average sentence was 2.5 months. The main offences of those imprisoned were violence against the person (22%) and burglary (17%). 21% of prisoners were from ethnic minorities, who form around 10% of the total population. Of prisoners released, 59% are found guilty of another offence within two years.

External links

• Prison Service homepage
• Home Office prisons page