PRT comment: Council of Europe annual penal statistics

Commenting on the publication today of the Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations for 2021, Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:

“Some politicians may be tempted to celebrate the fact that we imprison more of our fellow citizens than other European countries. But to be high up a league table where Russia sits at the top should perhaps give ministers pause for thought.

“Once again, these depressing figures show how other countries find better and less wasteful ways to exact retribution when people have done wrong. The size of our prison population reflects only our dismal politics — beating crime has nothing to do with it.”