Prison population highest ever
The prison population in England and Wales has reached its highest figure ever.
by The Friend Newsdesk
23rd September 2011
There were 87,120 people in detention on 16 September, of whom 95.1 per cent were male. The number is less than 2,000 places short of the ‘usable operational capacity’ of the prison system. The previous week’s figure had already broken records.
The prison service said that they are ‘developing contingencies to increase usable capacity should further pressure be placed on the prison estate’.
Prime minister David Cameron recently defended a ‘tough’ approach to rioters when speaking with Quakers in his Witney constituency (see ‘Witney Quakers meet David Cameron’, 16 September). But Frances Crook of the Howard League for Penal Reform said: ‘A record prison population is a sign of failure, not success’.
