General Article England and Wales have the highest prison rates in Western Europe amid ‘botched reforms’

Topic Selected: Crime and Justice Book Volume: 366
This article is 4 years old. Click here to view the latest articles for this topic.

The rate of people being sent to prison in England and Wales has been branded as ‘shameful’ by Prison Reform Trust.

More people are being sent to prison in England and Wales every year than anywhere else in western Europe.

The rate of people being sent to prison in England and Wales, which has been branded as ‘shameful’ is around twice as high as in Germany and roughly three times that of Italy and Spain, the Prison Reform Trust found.

This amounted to more than 140,000 admissions into prison in England and Wales in 2017, the most recent year data are available for. The trust’s analysis suggests there are nearly 240 prison admissions for every 100,000 people in England and Wales each year.

The trust’s analysis, which used the latest available Council of Europe annual penal statistics, also showed:

  • At more than at 82,400, the prison population in England and Wales is nearly 70 per cent higher than three decades ago.
  • Each year England and Wales had over 40,000 more admissions to pris...

Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?

Sign up now for an immediate no obligation FREE TRIAL and view the entire collection