UK prisons currently contain 80,000 convicted criminals. During the 1990s inmate numbers rose from 45,000 to about 65,000. I'm currently taking a close look at the Mubarek Report into the March 2000 prison murder of Zahid Mubarek. It is a shocking indictment of the prison system in the UK, but also contains some excellent factoids. We all know that prisons aren't the safest of places. In terms of homicide how do you think UK prisons compare to other unsafe environments?
Excluding war zones, South African farmers are said to face the highest per capita murder rates at 313 per 100,000 per annum.
In 2005, Jamaica is reported to have eclipsed South Africa and Colombia in the worldwide charts with a murder rate of 62 per 100,000. The worldwide murder rate is estimated at about 7 per 100,000, but I couldn't find anything authoritative on that.
Latest reports show the UK's murder hotspot is Nottingham with a murder rate of 5 per 100,000.
No googling. What do think was the number of murders or the murder rate in UK prisons between 1990 and 2001?
Update
Still time for more guesses I will reveal the answer on Wednesday morning.
5 comments:
100 per 100,000?
I would have guessed fairly low - 7 per 100,000?
But I imagine the suicide rate is very high.
Chris - Thanks for introducing the suicide rate into the equation. The suicide figures for between 1990 and 2001 are also included in the report, so I will give this info, too.
My guess is terrifying 345 per 100,000.
With suicide I'm going for 500.
One of the less enlightened Tory MPs of some years back suggested giving prisoners razor blades.
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