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Essay on England and Wales - Highest Prison Populations in Western Europe

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'It is widely agreed - although perhaps not by either the current Labour government or its Conservative predecessor - that the number of prisoners in England and Wales is alarmingly high. It is also rapidly rising' (Cavadino & Dignan, 2002: 11). The subject of the high and steadily growing prison population within England and Wales has been a subject of much debate between academics and politicians over the last few decades. It is a fact that the UK consistently has one of the highest prison populations in Western Europe. This has led a number of Home Secretaries to attempt to intervene and introduce policies to reduce prison numbers in recent years. This essay will examine the prison population in England and Wales and focus on the measures taken to reduce it, how effective these measures have been, and to what extent there is a need for improvement.

The prison population in England and Wales has risen rapidly over the last three decades, to approximately 65,000 by the end of the 1990's, from under 40,000 since 1975. By 1998, on an average day there were 65,298 people in prison in England and Wales, and by July, 1998 a total of 66,500 people were in prison. 'This was counteracted to some extent in1999 by the introduction of the early release of selected prisoners on home detention curfew monitored by electronic tagging, but by mid-1999 this covered only 1,854 prisoners' (Crow, 2001: 108).

In 1999, England and Wales had the second highest prison population in Western Europe with a total of 65,993 prisoners, this was a little short of Germany's total of 79,666. However, the average number of prisoners per 100,000 of the total population within England and Wales was 125, much higher than the German figure of 95, and second only to Portugal's 130 prisoners per 100,000 of the total population. By 2003, the number of prisoners per 100,000 of the population in England and Wales had risen to as high as 141.

The total prison population hit an all time high on 6 April 2004 when it reached 75,544.

In the ten years to 2003, the prison population increased by an alarming 66%. The rapid growth in the prison population has not been fuelled by escalating crime rates or by an increase in the number of offenders appearing before the courts. Rather, harsher sentencing has resulted in our ever-escalating prison population

Although it is true that proportionate prison populations are much higher in some countries outside of Western Europe, the United States for example has approximately five times the number of prisoners relative to its population than the UK, it is clear that England and Wales compared with much of Western Europe has too many people in its prisons. It is widely accepted that this disproportionality is not due to the UK having a much higher rate of crime than its European neighbours; rather it is because more offenders are sentenced to be held in custody. It is important then to look at the reasons for why Britain appears to be so conspicuously punitive.

There are three main factors that determine the size of the prison population at any given time. The first two of these are directly related to the sentencing decisions that are made within the courts. One is the number of people sentenced to custody, known as the rate of imprisonment; the second is the length of custodial sentences imposed by the courts; and the final factor is the number of prisoners that are released on early release programmes. This means that the courts play a significant role in the continued rise and huge scale of the UK's prison population through sending more people to prison than is necessary and by imposing longer sentences than are needed. The courts are primarily influenced by sentencing guidelines and directives prescribed by the government.

The massive increase in prison population within England and Wales in recent years has been attributed by many writers to the approach to law and order issues of the Conservative Government of the late eighties and early nineties. As Joyce (2001: 226) argues; 'The level of overcrowding within Britain's prisons was significantly increased by the penal policy pursued by the Conservative government in the 1990's which led to increased custody rates and longer average sentences'. Critics of the current Government's stance on prison population argue that New Labour has followed this trend of encouraging the imprisonment of high numbers of offenders. 'The 'New Labour' administration of Tony Blair which took power in 1997 may have dropped the slogan 'prison works; but has shown little interest in trying to encourage reductions in sentences to custody' (Cavadino & Dignan, 2002: 13).

Crime is the focus of a great amount of political and public debate and a disproportionate amount of media coverage. Despite the risk of becoming a victim of crime being very low, public fear of crime and media news reporting on crime is at an all time high. Much of public opinion on the performance of the government is based on its policies on law and order. A government which reduces crime will expect public recognition for this achievement. Conversely political support is likely to suffer if the level of crime increases. Due to the weight of media and public pressure in recent decades to punish offenders properly, governments have leaned towards a tougher stance on law and order. This view is supported by a number of other commentators. In a speech given in July 1997 to the Police Foundation the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham commented that 'Given the temper of our society over the last five years, I do not find it surprising that the prison population has increased by 50 per cent, reflecting the more ready resort to custody by sentencers and an increase in the length of custodial sentences imposed. The tenor of political rhetoric has strongly favoured the imposition of severe sentences; this rhetoric has been faithfully reflected in certain elements of the media, and judges accused of passing lenient sentences have found themselves routinely castigated in newspapers' (cited in Nacro, 1997).

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