Prison population same as highest in Western Europe

With 154 criminals in jail per 100,000 people, the island is equal to Wales, which has had its imprisonment statistics analysed separately from the rest of the UK’s for the first time.

England, meanwhile, had 141 prisoners per capita.

Guernsey’s population stood at 62,063 at the end of 2017, according to the States website, and as of 18 January this year there were 96 convicted prisoners in Les Nicolles. Earlier in the month there were 97, making the island’s per capita figure, briefly, higher than Wales.

‘The new research from Wales shows just how important it is for politicians to pay attention to patterns in prison data, and to question changing trends,’ said Deputy Emilie Yerby, who has challenged Home Affairs previously to address crime prevention and reduction rather than just extend the prison.

‘The most important question of all is: how do we stop crime happening in the first place?

‘If someone’s committed a crime before, how do we convince them not to do it again?’

Home Affairs president Deputy Mary Lowe said this was being looked into at the moment with a full review of justice policy.

‘[This] offers the potential for transformational changes to be considered.

‘We need to aim to ensure a framework is in place to avoid people entering the criminal justice system in the first place, rather than solely focusing on what we do with them once they are in it.

‘Justice is a large piece of work covering multiple areas across government – including the whole criminal justice system through to the effective rehabilitation and reintegration into society of those who have been imprisoned.’

Home aims to have its three-phase review ready for consideration by the end of the year.