As prisons have been topical I've dug out some relevant statistics (just what I have to hand).
We hear that “crime is a young man’s game”. If we call young anything up to 30 years-old, fifty three percent of prison sentences imposed in 2003 were on young people.
BUT of all inmates 76 percent had FIRST been imprisoned as a young person. The most common age for first imprisonment is 17.
Of the 8,536 sentences 10 percent went to females. Up from 7 percent in 1999.
Exactly half of the sentences were imposed on Maori.
Going back to 1960;
3,057 sentences were imposed. The percentage of the population under 30 was fifty three; now it is only 43 percent. Despite today's population being considerably older the rate of sentencing per 10,000 of mean population, has increased by around fifty percent.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
The comment that 17 was the most common age for a first sentence tells all.
The minimum age for imprisonment is 17 years.
These 'people' have been on the waiting list for years. After years of getting off scott-free they suddenly hit the magic age. and find themselves banged up!
The damage they do in this waiting period is enormous.
We need a lock up for kids- their genetic material donors won't contol them...
Oswald, The table I have shows, of all inmates, 415 were first imprisoned at 16. When did it change? Or does this refer to starting out in a borstal, in which case why not 15 year-olds?
Of course- if the data is old enough, it would include borstal and the other short-lived program that I can't remember the name of!
All before my time in the prison service.
My comment on youth in a 'holding pattern' still runs true and was not meant to be challenging anything in your original post- just trying to add to it!
Cheers!
Post a Comment