The United Kingdom has three distinct legal systems with a separate prison system in each: one for both England and Wales, one for Scotland, and one for Northern Ireland. As of June 2023, the United Kingdom has the highest per-capita incarceration rate in Western Europe, at 159 people per 100,000 in England and Wales; 162 people per 100,000 in Scotland; 97 people per 100,000 in Northern Ireland; and the largest prison population in Western Europe.[1][2][3] The average cost per prison place (including all resource expenditure) was £46,696 in England and Wales (2021/22), £46,892 in Scotland (2021/22), and £47,927 in Northern Ireland (2022/23).[1] This figure has risen to close to £57,000 for England and Wales in 2023/24.[4][5]
As of June 2023, the total UK prison population was 95,526: composed of 85,851 prisoners from England and Wales, 7,775 from Scotland and 1,900 from Northern Ireland.[1] At the end of the first quarter of 2024, there were 87,869 prisoners in England and Wales.[6] In 2019, the recidivism rate in the UK was close to 50% after one year.[7]
- ^ a b c Sturge, Georgina. "UK Prison Population Statistics" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
- ^ Highest to Lowest. World Prison Brief (WPB). Use the dropdown menu to choose lists of countries by region or the whole world. Use the menu to select highest-to-lowest lists of prison population totals, prison population rates, percentage of pre-trial detainees/remand prisoners, percentage of female prisoners, percentage of foreign prisoners, and occupancy rate. Column headings in WPB tables can be clicked to reorder columns lowest to highest, or alphabetically. For detailed information for each country click on any country name in lists. See also the WPB main data page and click on the map links and/or the sidebar links to get to the region and country desired.
- ^ "Britain has the highest prison population in the EU". The Times. 3 April 2019.
- ^ Dathan, Matt (3 April 2025). "Prisoners 'held in isolation to keep them safe from Islamists'". The Times.
- ^ "Costs per place and costs per prisoner by individual prison" (PDF). Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
- ^ "Prison population: 31 March 2024". gov.uk. Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
- ^ "How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours". BBC News. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2025.
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search