From 1900 - 2007 The Crisis Begins

The number of indictable offences per thousand population in 1900 was 2.4 and in 1997 the figure was 89.1.

In 2004, 1.8 million offenders were found guilty or cautioned, four per cent more than in 2003.

The British Crime Survey estimates unreported crime; in 1997 56% of crimes were not reported to the police. In earlier years, this figure was probably higher and accounts for some of the increase.

Reported crime peaked in 1992 when 109.4 indictable offences were recorded per thousand population.

An analysis of Home Office figures for 2006 reveals that only 9.7 per cent of all 'serious woundings', including stabbings, that are reported to the police result in a conviction. For robberies the figure falls to 8.9 per cent and for rape, it is 5.5 per cent.

Serious woundings have risen by more than half in 10 years to almost 20,000 attacks each year, but their conviction rate has fallen from 14.8 to 9.7 per cent. Nearly 13,000 rapes were recorded by police in the year from April 2004, double the total for 1997, and over the period the conviction rate collapsed from 9.2 to 5.5 per cent. There was, however, a fall in the number of burglaries and the conviction rate for them rose - but only by 0.5 per cent.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1784623,00.html

A rising trend in reported crime began in 1954, when the figure was 9.7 per 1000.

Since 1992 (to 1997), the rising trend in reported crime has been reversed, primarily due to changes in the way the police record crimes and also because fewer people bother reporting crimes to the police anymore.

Before 1992, the reported crime rate did not fall significantly at any time.

The rate of homicides peaked in the mid-1990s. In 1995 14.5 homicides were committed per million of population.

Since the early 1960s the number of homicides per million population has more than doubled.

In 1901 the average prison population was 15,900.

By 1998 the figure had increased to 65,300. There were more prisoners in 1998 than in any other year this century.

In 2007 the number of prisoners in England and Wales hit an all-time high of 80,846 yesterday, raising fears that the court service could run out of cell space this week if too few remand prisoners succeed in getting bail. The record numbers saw 450 prisoners housed in police and court cells made available for overspill.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,2090955,00.html

From 1901 to 1916 the trend was downwards. The prison population was at its lowest level in the inter-war years at about 10-11,000.

In the 1940s the population began to rise: between 1946 and 1986 the average male prison population increased by about 800 per annum. 14 Decreases occurred between 1951-56 and 1986- 91, though the numbers of prisoners was on the rise overall.

The latter reduction in the prison population was due to policy intervention between 1989 and 1992. The population decreased from 46,800 (in 1986) to 44,800 (in 1991). But the reduction was short-lived: by 1996 the population was 55,300.15

The 20th century began with net emigration, mostly of young British men, to other countries, especially North America, Australia, New Zealand and the other colonies. During the Great Depression this was reversed as migrants returned home, and following the Second World War there was marked immigration from Commonwealth countries. As a result, there was net inward migration from 1931 through to 1961. In the 1970s and 1980s, the UK became a net exporter of people as families migrated to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. ASt the same time as mass immigration began to impact ujpon the UK.

Note the EXACT correllation between crime rising and the increase in the numbers of of migrants entering the UK.

It was reported in 1982 that black people made up 18% of the prison population, but only accounted for 5% of the general population. The figures are worse for Afro-Caribbean males, 1% of the population, but 11% of the prison population. (Home Office 1982).

A survey by the PSI (Policy Studies Institute) in 1983 found that blacks were disproportionately arrested, they found that 5% of the population of London were black, but 17% of those arrested in London were black. Further studies by Walker (1988) & (1989) support these findings.

On 30th June 1994, there were 8,100 prisoners emanating from an ethnic minority in jail, compared with 6,700 on the same date in 1993. 16% of all male prisoners were black compared with 25% of females. On the same date 800 of the above were foreign nationals, a significant proportion of whom were not normally resident in the UK. The difference in the male and female figures is almost entirely accounted for by foreign nationals. Of British national males in prison, 12% emanated from an. ethnicminority, compared to just 5 % in the general population. However,African or African-Caribbean males made up 9% of the population,compared to their representation of 1% in the general population.

New Home Office statistics show numbers of African-Caribbean prisoners has leapt a staggering 58% since 1997, with young black men making up over 90% of all black inmates.

http://www.blink.org.uk/pdescription.asp?key=2982&grp=16

Penal experts expressed shock over the dramatic rise in the numbers of black prisoners, which has far outstripped the numbers of African-Caribbean’s going to university. For every African Caribbean man in university there are now two in jail.

The last six years have seen the steepest-ever climb in the numbers and proportion of black prisoners. Today there are now three times as many African-Caribbeans behind bars than there were in 1985 when Douglas Hurd was Home Secretary.

Black men are nine times more likely to be locked up compared to white men in the UK.

African-Caribbean’s made up 8% of the total prison population in 1985, but that figure had risen to 12% when Labour won power in 1997. It is now 17%.

The CRE recently published part two of its’ formal investigation into the prison service following the death of Zahid Mubarak, 19, at the hands of a racist cellmate in 1999.

The report, called ‘Race Equality in Prisons’, found that for every 100,000 white people in Britain, 188 were in jail. But for black people the figure was 1,704. That means black people are over nine times more likely to be in prison than their white counterparts.

A CRE spokeswoman said: "Imprisonment is becoming a defining experience for some ethnic minority groups. In 2002, there were more African Caribbean entrants to prisons in England and Wales than there were to UK universities. And for every African Caribbean male on campus, there were two black Britons in jail.

Black people of all ages are three times more likely to be arrested than white people.

Black people constitute 2.7 percent of the population aged 10-17, but represent 8.5 percent of all those arrested in England and Wales. Black people are just over six times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than white people.

From 1997 to 2003 there was an overall increase of just under 9 percent in all British male prisoners.

However, black male prisoners with British nationality increased by 21.5 percent over this period of time, compared to a 5 percent rise in number of white male prisoners with British nationality.

(Source: House of Commons home affairs committee report into Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System. To download a copy, go to » www.tinyurl.com/2ekd5s)

As of the end of June 2007, some 10,097 foreign nationals were in British jails, representing about 14% of the prison population.

Taken together they form approximately a third of the total. Jamaicans comprise 13% of all foreign national prisoners. Some 19 nationalities have only one prisoner each in British jails.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4946988.stm

The Prison Service has converted two jails to hold only foreign national prisoners, it has been revealed.

Bullwood Hall, Essex, and Canterbury Prison, Kent, have been taking foreign offenders since the 2006 crisis over prisoners who had not been deported.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7059283.stm

Between 1999 and 2006, the Home Office released some 1,000 foreign nationals from prison convicted of serious crimes. These were people who normally should have been considered for deportation.

More than 870 had been serving at least 12 months, and 13 were serving more than 10 years.

The 1,023 prisoners had been convicted of a wide range of offences, the largest single groups being drugs offences, forgery, robbery, deception and violence.

Foreign prisoners now make up almost one in six of Britain's jail population and are costing the taxpayer almost £400 million a year to keep, new figures show.

The explosion in the number of overseas inmates has been the main driver behind the overcrowding crisis that has pushed the total above 80,000.

Figures published by the Home Office in a parliamentary written answer show there are now 12,122 foreign prisoners compared to around 10,000 just a year ago.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/03/njail03.xml

Over the past five years, while the number of British prisoners has gone up by about 10 per cent, there has been an 80 per cent increase in foreigners, taking up 4,000 more prison places than anticipated.

The Government's latest figures show that the annual cost per prisoner place was £32,888 in 2005-06. Mr Green said this meant the annual cost of keeping 12,000 foreign inmates amounts to £398,339,456.

Research by the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) suggests that more than 1,200 foreign nationals have passed their release date but are still being held while officials struggle to process their deportation papers. Around 700 of these are in prison, with the remainder in immigration removal centres. It costs around £40,000 a year to keep someone in prison, suggesting that the situation is costing the government almost £4m a month.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1859380,00.html

There are nearly 10,000 foreign nationals in Britain's jails, 13 per cent of the prison population. Immigration court sources suggest only 30 per cent of those subjected to deportation proceedings are currently returned to their country of origin. Napo estimates the backlog will not be cleared until the autumn and warns that prison and probation staff are struggling to cope with a problem that has seen hundreds of staff transferred from processing asylum applications to sorting out the foreign prisoner crisis.

A recent UK Home Office [official website] report [text part 1, part 2, PDF] prepared for Prime Minister Tony Blair [JURIST news archive] details the country's first increase in crime since the mid-1990s and predicts a massive 25% increase in its prison population over the next five years, according to the Sunday Times.

The report also observes a growing gap between Britain's poorest and wealthiest residents and details a lack of cohesion among ethnic groups contributing to an upward crime trend. It makes suggestions for reducing crime including heroin vaccinations, a ban on alcohol advertising, chemical castration, ID chip implants, public shaming, parenting classes, and the use of bounty hunters. To increase cohesion in society, the report suggests a ban on face-obscuring veils [JURIST news archive] in schools.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/uk-crime-rate-rise-detailed-prison.php

The content of the leaked memo is embarrassing for Blair's Labour Party [party website], which claims to be tough on crime. It predicts "there is still little chance that a crime will be detected and result in a caution or conviction" and states that nine out of ten crimes were either not responded to or went unpunished.

The most recent analysis shows that in 2004, 87,000 people from black or minority ethnic communities (BME) said they had been a victim of a racially motivated crime. In the same period, 92,000 white people said they had also fallen victim.

Focusing on violent racial attacks, 49,000 BME were victims. Among whites, the number was 77,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6128466.stm

Most of the offenders (57%) in the racially motivated crimes identified in the British Crime Survey are not white. White victims said 82% of offenders were not white.

Among black victims of race crime, a quarter of offenders were identified as not white. Among Asian victims, the non-white proportion rises to a third.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1928559,00.html

Nearly half of all victims of racially motivated murders in the last decade have been white, according to official figures released by the Home Office.

The data, released under Freedom of Information legislation, shows that between 1995 and 2004 there have been 58 murders where the police consider a racial element played a key part. Out of these, 24 have been where the murder victim was white.

The disclosure will add to the intense debate over multiculturalism in British society. The figures also overturn the assumption that almost all racial murders are committed against ethnic minority victims.

Senior police officers have admitted that 'political correctness' and the fear of discussing the issue have meant that race crime against white people goes under-reported. One chief constable has claimed that white, working-class men are more alienated than the Muslim community.

Peter Fahy, the Chief Constable of Cheshire and a spokesman on race issues for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said it was a fact that it was harder to get the media interested where murder victims were young white men.

'The political correctness and reluctance to discuss these things absolutely does play a factor', he said. 'A lot of police officers and other professions feel almost the best thing to do is try and avoid it for fear of being criticised. We probably have all got ourselves into a bit of state about this.

'The difficulty in the police service is that the whole thing is being closed down because we are all afraid of discussing any of it in case we say the wrong thing - and that is not healthy.'

Overall, there have been 10 black victims and 16 Asian victims. Of the 58 race murders, 18 have been where a white attacker has killed a black or Asian individual and another 14 where one member of a minority group has murdered another for racial reasons.

In 1999 the Commission for Racial Equality published a report that concluded that most racial crimes were committed against white people.