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Wales rose during the same period due to two factors according to Young (1979:6). 12
Firstly, while the proportion of cases in which the Courts resorted to custodial sentences
fell, the actual number of receptions under sentence into penal establishments rose due to
the enormous rise in the total number of persons convicted of criminal offences.
Secondly, there was a slight increase in the length of prison sentences imposed over the
same period. 13 The combined effect of these two factors inflated the prison population
resultingin chronicallyovercrowdedestablishments.
(ii). Prison Costs
This foregoing pattern was certainly expected to continue, giving concern among policy-
makers about the inordinate costs 14 of keeping ever-increasing numbers of prisoners in
custody, either in over-crowded prisons or in newly constructed prisons with all the
attendant costs. As this pattern became increasing clear, the search for alternatives to
custody grew apace. Moreover, there was an expectation that social reconstruction after
the War would lead increasinglyto a reduction in crime as the promises of the welfare state
were applied to the presumed causes of criminal behaviour. These included programmes
for the provision of free health services, social insurance, the provision of free education
and social housing. Crime could be eliminated, so the optimism of the times predicted,
through significant application of resources to areas of need(Driberg1964).
(iii). CRIMINOLOGICAL CONTEXTS
The Failure of Other Alternatives
The introduction of another non-custodial sentence, namely the suspended sentence, in
1967 in England and Wales had been heralded as a specific measure to intervene
instrumentally in easing the burden of custodial institutions. Under the procedure of the
suspended sentence a convicted offender would be given a specified sentence which would
then be suspended for a specified period of time. And yet by 1972 considerable
dissatisfaction was expressed in relation to the operation of this recently introduced non-
12 In 1948 the daily average prison population was 19,318 which increased to 31,984 in 1968. The actual number of
receptions into penal institutions rose from32,865 in 1948 to 49,258 in 1968 in EnglandAndWales (Young1979 p.6).
13 The proportion of prison sentences of over two years imposed by higher courts rose from 15% in 1948 to 26% in
1968.
14 The Wootton Committee estimated that in 1971 it cost £22 sterling per week to keep a prisoner in custodywhile they
judged the average weekly cost of a community service order would be £1 sterling per week (Home Office 1970: par.
9).
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