TNAG-2156-FCO40-3076-International-Covenant-on-Civil-and-Political-Rights-(ICCPR)-1990 — Page 62

CCPR/C/58/Add.6 page 30

Compensation for harm sustained by detained persons

127. A detained person is no longer required, when offered ex gratia payment of compensation in respect of harm sustained during detention, to sign a waiver restricting his right to take other forms of action.

Article 10

Prisons

128. In summer 1989, the United Kingdom had a prison population of about 55,600, or 98 per 100,000 inhabitants. The population reached its highest level of 57,500 at the end of November 1987, having increased from 49,200 at the end of July 1984.

129. In summer 1989, England and Wales had a prison population of about 49,128 or 97 per 100,000 inhabitants, an increase of 7,000 since summer 1984. The population reached its highest level in recent years of 51,239 in July 1987. In summer 1989, Scotland had a prison population of about 4,997, or 98 per 100,000.

The population reached its highest level of 5,797 in March 1986, having increased from 4,465 since summer 1984. In Northern Ireland, the prison population in summer 1989 was about 1,745, or 110 per 100,000. This is in line with the falling prison population in the province from its peak of 2,945 in 1978.

130. The figures for Scotland and England and Wales represent a relatively high prison population in comparison with other European countries with similar crime problems, and it results in serious overcrowding in many prisons, some of which are having to hold more than double the number of prisoners for which the accommodation is intended. In Northern Ireland, there is already a high percentage of single cell occupancy in all the province's penal establishments.

131. Paragraphs 164 and 165 below describe the Government's programme for building new prisons in England and Wales, but the Government is equally concerned both to reduce the number of people who receive prison sentences and the number who are remanded in custody before trial.

was

132. A government Green Paper, "Punishment, custody and the community", published in July 1988 setting out for discussion a number of proposals under which community-based measures could be used more extensively for those who received prison sentences at present, and also more effectively in terms of future offending and hence of levels of crime more generally. It drew attention to the substantial fall which had already taken place in the number of juveniles sentenced to custody (a reduction of about one half in six years, with no increase in known juvenile offending), and suggested that similar efforts should be made in relation to offenders aged between 17 and 20. The Government is now considering reactions to the Green Paper and will announce its conclusions and its proposals for further legislation later this year. The number of young people in custody in England and Wales had already fallen by about 1,000, or 9 per cent, between mid-1988 and mid-1989. A slightly greater percentage fall over the same period was evident in Scotland.