NCJ Number
139983
Date Published
1992
Length
96 pages
Annotation
Interviews with approximately 4,000 randomly selected adult prison inmates in England and Wales in January and February 1991 gathered information about the background characteristics of these inmates, causes of their criminality, their current attitudes, and inmate programs.
Abstract
The survey reached 10 percent of the male inmates and 20 percent of the female inmates in interviews lasting about 40 minutes each. Results revealed that the inmate population differs significantly from the general population in that 40 percent of the inmates and 16 percent of the general adult population are under age 25, and 1 percent of the inmates and 26 percent of the general population are over age 60. In addition, fewer than 4 percent of inmates are female, and ethnic minorities form a much higher proportion of the prison population than of the general population. Sixty-two percent of the inmates spend most of their time up to age 16 with both parents. Forty percent of the male inmates and 11 percent of the general male population left school before age 16. One-third of the inmates were unemployed just prior to imprisonment. Nearly half attended education or training classes in prison; fifty-nine percent were doing some work. The three aspects of prison that they found most annoying were their handling by prison guards, bureaucracy and the way rules are implemented, and the amount of time spent locked up. Additional findings, figures, tables, 31 references, and lists of other Home Office publications