We jail too few, not too many

The statistic which has been proved in every instance across the globe, but which is ignored by those who have shaped policy in recent decades, is that high imprisonment rates correlate directly with low crime rates: Spain and Ireland, for example, both have far lower crime rates than Britain. And when Britain began increasing its prison population 15 years ago, the number of crimes began falling. In 1993 the prison population was 49,000 and the number of recorded offences was 19 million. By 2005 the prison population was 75,000 and the number of crimes 11 million. The same story can be told for the US - and indeed everywhere where imprisonment rates are high - where the crime rate has fallen steadily as the prison population has climbed. Less than one per cent of all crimes in Britain result in a custodial sentence.