ABSTRACT
In the first edition of this book, this chapter began by anticipating that nothing was going to prevent the rise in the prison population, as mandatory minimum sentences and automatic life sentences were introduced, and a punitive philosophy underpinned the government's programme. How right that prediction was. In late 1996, there were 58,000 in prison, and in the summer of 2004, the figure climbed to just under 77,000 (https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781843926627/c9a7fc6b-8474-4b21-b2bc-1cbae89b26cc/content/www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk).
