Surprise, surprise. Our prisons are packed

 Some news makes you wonder – certainly makes me wonder. Prisoners are unhappy and causing trouble. That’s news apparently.

News can be about next door’s Winnie winning £10,000 on a lottery, or the mayor getting arrested or murdered or re-elected. But telling us that prisoners stuffed into packed jails are more violent this year can hardly be news, surely no more than it might be in the least surprising.

Today, we learn that there were nearly 34,000 attacks by prisoners last year, up 20% on the previous year. Can that be much of a surprise let alone news?

Wikipedia reports that total UK prison population last year was 83,618, which is .13% of the population.

The bias of justice

In 2018, 79,749 men and 3,869 women were locked away.

Among that vast population were 8,500 former servicemen – an extraordinary 10% of the prison population.

What that says about the British military, or the bias of justice, might be worth investigating.

 But look at prisons, justice, and so many strange statistics arise. For instance, between 2002 and 2013, 130% people aged 60 or more went to jail.

When I was remanded in 1999, the prison population numbered around 65,000. When friends collected me in 2007, the population stood at around 85,000.

Does today’s ‘news’ mean that an ever-increasing percentage of the population is turning to crime?

 Take this astonishing statistic ….Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com SailingToPurgatory.com