Significant reductions in prison populations tend to be associated with spikes in crime rates

Tim Montgomerie

In today's Sunday Telegraph I ask the question: Is it safe to send fewer people to jail? The answer is no.

Earlier this week Civitas released a short report rebutting Ken Clarke's claim that crime has fallen throughout the world, whatever the prison population. In fact the evidence shows that "significant reductions in prison populations tend to be associated with spikes in crime rates". The graphs tell the story:

More at Civitas.