NCJ Number
204414
Date Published
November 2003
Length
241 pages
Annotation
This presentation of 2002 prison statistics for England and Wales includes tables and commentary that reveal trends in the prison population, the remand population, adults and juveniles, life-sentence inmates, ethnic groups and nationality, religion, offenses and punishments, reconvictions of discharged inmates, parole and home detention curfew, and prison regime and costs.
Abstract
The average population in custody during 2002 was 70,860, a 7-percent increase from 2001 and a 16-percent increase since 1997. The average remand population in 2002 was 14 percent higher than the average in 2001, being 12,790 compared with 11,240 in 2001. Between 2001 and 2002, the number of female inmates increased 15 percent, from an average of 3,740 to an average of 4,300, and the male inmate population increased 6 percent. Between June 2001 and June 2002, there were above-average increases in the number of sentenced males in prison for robbery (10-percent increase) and drug offenses (9-percent increase). There were decreases in the male sentenced population for traffic offenses (5-percent decrease) and fraud and forgery (2-percent decrease). There were above-average increases in the female sentenced population in prison for burglary (40-percent increase), robbery (24-percent increase), and violent offenses against persons (21-percent increase). There were reductions in the female sentenced population for fraud and forgery (6-percent decrease). Forty-five percent of the increase in the female sentenced prison population between 2001 and 2002 was due to an increase in drug offenses. Between 1992 and 2002, inmates sentenced to 4 years or more including life increased as a proportion of all sentenced inmates, from 42 percent in 1992 to 48 percent in 2002. The proportion of sentenced inmates serving sentences of less than 12 months decreased slightly. Fifty-nine percent of all inmates discharged in 1999 were reconvicted for a standard-list offense within 2 years of their discharge. In England and Wales, there were 137 people in custody for every 100,000 members of the general population in 2002. This is the highest among western European countries. Extensive tables and appended legislation and policy initiatives that affect the statistics and data sources and recording practice