UK prison population tops 90,000

The magazine Criminal Justice Matters calculated the total and said it amounted to two in every 1,000 people in the country.

Research by Dr David Scott of the University of Central Lancashire said jail totals were 81,700 in England and Wales, 7,600 in Scotland and 1,500 in Northern Ireland, plus about 400 being held in police stations due to the overcrowding crisis.

The magazine, which is the journal of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London, also said there were 14,600 people detained under the Mental Health Act, 2,300 in immigration detention and about 470 in secure children's homes or child prisons.

Magazine co-editor Rebecca Roberts said: "The high number of people in detention raises important moral, ethical and political questions.

"It also challenges us to think more critically about the role of the state and the extent to which detention is used as a form of social control."

The total did not include people detained under the Mental Health Act in Wales.

Jail numbers were gathered in the first two weeks of last month, and have since risen by more than 200 in England and Wales.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: We will always ensure that there are prison places for those serious and dangerous offenders who ought to be in prison.

"We will ensure that courts have tough community sentences at their disposal to deal with less serious, non-violent offenders."