Who exactly are the people getting caught up in the prison system?
They are overwhelmingly men some 73,000 of the 78,000 people in prison are men. Crime is a mens problem, a problem to do with masculinity and the role of men in todays society. They are also young, aged between 18 and 25. They are disproportionately from ethnic minority groups. They are working class. They are unemployed. And many of them are homeless. Many have mental health problems and/or drug and alcohol addictions. Alcohol accounts for a lot of crime, particularly violent crime. Drugs account for acquisitive crimes people need to get money to feed the drugs habit. Thats basically the majority of prisoners. The percentage of the population in prison has gone up slightly more for women than for men. Ten years ago there were just over 40,000 people in prison, of which 2,000 were women. Now it has almost doubled for both groups, and women have been victims of this general rise. Women tend to be victimised twice over. They are victimised when they are already victims like those women w
