Risk, Responsibility, and Pre-Trial Detention

Abstract

First paragraph: When we think about our prisons, we might think of them as populated by convicted offenders serving terms of imprisonment. However, a substantial number of prisoners are on remand awaiting trial: 8,304 (10.5%) of the total population of 79,092 in English prisons, for instance, on December 31, 2021;1, 2,002 (26.7%) out of a total population of 7,502 in Scottish prisons at February 4, 2022. For many of them, their detention is relatively short; in Scotland, for instance, the median time on pretrial remand in 2019–20 was 21 days. But for some it exceeds a year: in England, at December 31, 2021, 4,185 had been awaiting trial for over six months, of whom 1,710 had been detained for more than a year, 480 of them for more than two years. Many in pre-trial detention are then convicted and sentenced to imprisonment, but many are not: in England, about 15% are acquitted, and about 30% receive a non-custodial sentence after conviction.