§ Mr. Mike O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the total numbers of(a) adult and (b) juvenile prisoners held in custody in each of the last 15 years. [20386]
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. Mike O'Brien, dated 28 April 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about the total numbers of adult and juvenile prisoners held in custody in each of the last 15 years.Within the prison system, adults are defined as aged 21 and over. A breakdown of the prison population from 1980–1994 into adults and young persons is given in Table 1. Before the introduction in October 1992 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, young persons in Prison Service establishments between the ages of 14 and 16 were defined as juveniles. Since the 1991 Act came into effect, young persons aged between 15 and 17 have been treated as juveniles. Information on juveniles aged between 15 and 17 in Prison Service establishments is only available from 1987 and is contained in Table 2. More detailed information on the population of young persons up to 1992 is published annually in "Prison Statistics, England and Wales" (Table 3.2 of the 1992 edition).750W
Table 1: Population in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales, annual averages 1980–19941 Thousands Year Adults2(aged 21 and over) Young persons (aged under 21) 1980 30.1 12.5 1981 29.9 13.1 1982 30.3 13.0 1983 31.0 12.5 1984 30.5 12.5 1985 33.1 13.0 1986 34.3 12.3 1987 36.5 12.2
Table 1: Population in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales, annual averages 1980–19941 Thousands Year Adults2(aged 21 and over) Young persons (aged under 21) 1988 37.9 11.8 1989 38.0 10.4 1990 36.2 9.3 1991 36.8 8.8 1992 37.3 8.2 1993 36.1 7.8 1994 39.8 8.3 1 Remand and sentenced, excluding non-criminals. 2 Includes some 21 year old sentenced persons classified as young offenders.
Table 2: Population of youths (aged under 18) in Prison Service establishments,on 30 June, 1987–93 England and Wales1 Year Number 1987 2,877 1988 2,473 1989 2,088 1990 1,595 1991 1,345 1992 1,328 1993 1,304 1 Remand and sentenced, excluding non-criminals.