Introduction

Information derived from the biennial prison census is available dating back to 1987. However, because of considerations of space the time-series tables in this chapter are restricted to those that provide data from censuses starting from 1991. This gives a picture of changes in the composition of the prison population across twelve years. It is acknowledged that some of the apparent fluctuations in data may not reflect actual changes in the prison population but rather changes in census data collection methods and/or definition issues.