Prisons - new material (30)
01 March 1998
The prison population in 1997, Philip White & Jo Woodbridge. Statistical Bulletin (Home Office) Issue 5/98 (March) 1998, pp24. This bulletin records a 10% increase in prisoners since 1996 with the highest average (61,100) ever recorded. Female prisoners increased by 19% (to 2,680) and young offenders by 12% (to an average of 10,810); there were 11,500 prisoners from "ethnic minority" groups. The prison population is projected to reach 82,800 during 2005.
Coming of age: the changing face of prison, Scott Stevens. Prison Report (Prison Reform Trust) Issue No. 42 (Spring) 1998, pp4-5. This article compares the changes in prison life in the thirty years since 1967.
Prison Privatisation Report International (Prison Reform Trust) Nos. 17 & 18 (February & March) 1998. These issues contain useful articles on UK Detention Services and the death of Alton Manning, deficiencies at the first two privately financed, designed, built and run prisons (HMP Park in Bridgend, Wales and HMP Altcourse in the northwest), and a short piece on Campsfield House Detention Centre, recently condemned as "permanently on a knife edge with a catalogue of abuses..." by Asylum Watch.
Parliamentary debates
Life prisoners Lords 18.2.98. cols. 284-304
Prison Service Lords 25.3.98. cols. 1228-1278
Prison Health Service Commons cols. 1511-1518