England and Wales - Europe’s Lifer Capital

Figures released today by the Prison Reform Trust reveal that England and Wales has more life sentence prisoners than the whole of the European Union combined and more than any other European country.

The figures, published in the latest edition of PRT’s magazine, Prison Report, show that according to the most recent statistics from the Council of Europe, at the end of 2002 the combined lifer population of the EU was 5,046, but in England and Wales there were 5,268 life sentence prisoners.

Overall England and Wales had the highest lifer population out of all the 45 countries of the Council of Europe. The lifer population was three times more than the country with the next highest figure, Turkey, which had 1,746 lifers. Our nearest neighbour, France had only 556 life sentence prisoners.

Today the lifer population of England and Wales stands at around 5,500. This compares with just over 4,000 five years ago and just over 3,000 ten years ago.

An article in PRT’s magazine states that the record lifer population is not linked to a rise in homicides, the homicide rate in England and Wales is similar to other European countries, but is due to a tougher sentencing framework that includes:

* Mandatory sentences – England and Wales is one of the few countries in Europe which historically, ever since the death penalty was abolished, has a mandatory life sentence for murder.  As a result seven out of ten life sentence prisoners are convicted murderers. Other European countries have mandatory sentence only for specific categories of murder.

* Definition of murder - England and Wales has a narrow definition of murder. The essential element is premeditation. But in Germany, which also has a mandatory life sentence for murder there has to be one of seven specific motives.

* Automatic life sentence - Since 1998 an automatic life sentence is given following a second conviction for a serious offence, such as armed robbery, rape, attempted murder.

* Discretionary life sentence – There are nearly 70 offences for which a life sentence can be given, far higher than most European countries.

Penal populism, driven by politicians’ desire to be tough on crime, is also a factor in explaining the high number of life sentence prisoners.

PRT is also concerned that the specific needs of life sentence prisoners are being neglected in an overcrowded prison system:

* Life sentence prisons lack up to date individual sentence plans which set out their rehabilitation needs

* Regimes in many training and open prisons holding life sentence prisoners are overstretched and staff are under immense pressure

* Overall opportunities for constructive activities are increasingly limited

Speaking today the director of the Prison Reform Trust, Juliet Lyon, said:

“This dramatic jump in the number of people serving life sentences has nothing to do with stable crime rates and everything to do with the increased use of mandatory penalties and a growing emphasis on retribution. Locking up more people for longer in our overcrowded prisons reduces constructive activity and extends aimless periods behind bars.”

Notes to Editors

1. On 30 November 2003 there were 5,475 prisoners serving life sentences in England and Wales.

2. The vast majority, 5,305 were men. There were 170 women.

3. There were 151 young offenders, aged 18 to 21.

4. Nearly one in five life sentence prisoners (17 per cent) are from minority ethnic groups.

5. Seven out of ten life sentence prisoners are serving mandatory life sentences for murder.

6. In 2002, 530 people were sent to prison to serve a life sentence, of which 310 were mandatory life sentences for murder.

7. The risk of suicide is twice as high among life sentence prisoners, compared to the average prisoner population, making them the highest risk group.

8. Between 1998 and 2001, there were 80 life sentence prisoners who took their own lives.

9. A report by HM Inspector of Prisons of an unannounced inspection of HMP Shepton Mallet, published on 17 March 2004, showed that this dedicated category C training prison for life sentence prisoners had failed to develop a regime designed to  help them make constructive use of their sentences.