Responding to the Home Secretary’s statement about the deportation of foreign nationals released from prison, Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust said:
  
“The Home Office failure to consider deportation of some individuals at the end of their sentence as required by the courts is part of its overall failure to develop a coherent strategy for foreign national prisoners who represent one in eight of the prison population. Despite being held in record numbers, foreign national prisoners often lack basic information about prison rules and the legal system, struggle to gain accurate legal and immigration advice and, in the general confusion, many are held beyond their prison discharge date or released without proper planning.”
 
Notes on foreign national prisoners from PRT’s prison factfile:
 
At the end of June 2005, there were 9,651 foreign national prisoners (defined as non-UK passport holders), making up 13 per cent of the overall prison population.
 
One in five women in prison, (873 in total), are foreign nationals.
  
Foreign national prisoners come from 168 countries, but over half are from just six countries (Jamaica, the Irish Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey and India).A quarter are Jamaicans, by far the largest single group.
 
There has been a 152 per cent increase in foreign national prisoners in the last ten years, compared to a 55 per cent increase in British nationals.