Britain's Prison Population: It’s a New British Record

The Prison population has now risen to a new record figure of nearly 88,000.

Whilst these figures appear to have been lost in the press amidst the furore concerning problems with border controls the new prison figure has slipped under the radar.

Naturally the public needs to be protected from some people. However it is difficult to believe that there are 88,000 mass murderers locked up in Britain. The vast majority of Prisoners are serving sentences for more minor offences but are repeat offenders. A large proportion of prisoners have social welfare problems, mental health issues or are homeless and/or suffer from drink or drug dependency.

It is only too easy to continue to just lock people away and forget about them. However, it is too expensive for us to afford. It is hard to believe that Britain has such a criminal population that we have to lock up more of our own people than any other country in Europe. There must be some other answers if only the political will was there.