Read Juliet Lyon’s article in the Guardian

1 in 8 of the people in prison are foreign nationals. Their numbers have grown even faster than British nationals over the last ten years.  Some of the more lurid coverage in the press would suggest that every last one of them is a hardened criminal come to these shores on a mission of predation. However, while some foreign prisoners, like any others, have committed violent acts, the reason for the growth comes largely from steeply rising sentences for ‘drug mules’.  These people are almost always first time offenders, from the poorest countries in the world. In many cases they would like nothing more than to return home.

Successive governments have failed to face up to the rising numbers with the strategy that protects the public, safeguards the welfare of foreign national prisoners, and gives hard-pressed staff sufficient resources to cope.

Facts on Foreign national prisoners

• There has been a 152 per cent increase in foreign national prisoners in the last ten years to 2004, compared to a 55 per cent increase in British nationals.
• One in five women in prison 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.
• In two prisons, the Verne in Dorset and the women’s prison Morton Hall in Lincolnshire, foreign national prisoners make up half or more of the population. In sixteen prisons they make up a quarter or more.
• A recent Prison Service survey found that nearly 90 per cent of prisons holding foreign national prisoners are not making regular use of the translation service available.
• The vast majority of foreign national prisoners, four out of ten sentenced men and eight out of ten sentenced women, have committed drug offences, mainly drug trafficking. Six out ten foreign national prisoners are serving sentences of more than four years.