Prisons in UK

[Matty_UK]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5408530.stm


Prisons reaching 'bursting point'

Jails in England and Wales are at "bursting point", prison governors have said as figures show there are currently only 160 spaces available.
...
Home Secretary John Reid has been discussing options such as deporting some of the 10,000 foreign prisoners.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6072454.stm


Home Office plans floating jails

Home Secretary John Reid has been accused of panic measures over plans to use prison ships to ease overcrowding in jails in England and Wales.
The government has advertised for contractors to provide up to 800 places on ships.

This has been on the news a bit recently and thought it was something we should be thinking about.
Crime has not increased; in fact, it has actually decreased (the British Crime Survey says that the chance of being a victim of crime is lowest since 1981) so why so many people incarcerated? Have sentences gotten lengthier, and why?

Does anyone know where I can find statistics on whether certain crimes are rising, which ones, and any statistics on what offences are most common amongst the prison population? Google has not been forthcoming for me, largely.

And is the prison population increasing globally? I know it is the USA too but I haven't heard much about anywhere else. If it is, we should definitely be looking at this. Any informed opinions on this would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

[Whitten]

The population has increased, while prison capacity hasnt really done so. I wouldnt say sentence lengths are getting longer, if anything they've been dropping recently. I believe you'll find the vast number of those in the prisons will be in for drug related offences.

[Guerrilla22]

I don't know about in the UK, but in the US there is a prison industrial complex and its highly lucrative. I assume the same is probaly true in the UK also.

[*PRC*Kensei]

prisons also overcrowded in belgium btw.

[Tekun]

The same goes for prisons in the US, overcrowded and deplorable
I think the number's about 2.3million or so
And it is these prisons which regulate the labor market, and force the underpriviliged to accept low wage jobs
Like Guerilla said, its the nature of the prison industrial complex here in the US

[drain.you]

wouldnt b suprised if in 50-100years time that the only people not in jail are the cappie elite.

[Louis Pio]

In Denmark we have overcrowded jails as well, it's a global thing I guess

[Janus]

This has already happened in the US with the majority of the inmates beinng minorities, particularly African Americans.. The PRC is also experiencing this overcrowding problem also.