• 46% of adults jailed reoffend within 1 year.
• Less than 1% of people in the UK are in care, but they make up 33% of prisoners.
• Up to 46% of children in the youth justice system have special education needs, poor literacy and numeracy skills, and underachieve in schools.
• 30% of children are held over 50 miles away from home.
• 83% of women in jail are there for non-violent offences.
• 46% of women in prison have experienced domestic abuse.
• 53% of women prisoners experienced abuse as a child.
• Children of prisoners are three times more likely to suffer and experience mental health problems.
• Only 9% of children are cared for by their fathers if their mother is locked up.
• Depression is found twice as often in the prison population as it is in the general population.
• Roughly 4% of the general population have psychosis, in prison population the rate is between 15 and 20%.
• Women account for 26% of all self-harm injuries in prison, despite making up only 5% of the prison population.
• 46% of female prisoners report attempting suicide
• In 2013, there were over 200 deaths in custody.
• Women released from prison are 36 times more likely to kill themselves than the general population.
• 19% of people take heroin for the first time in prison.
• 15% of prisoners report being homeless prior to custody.
• Only ~30% of prisoners had work prior to custody. Only 26% went back to work upon leaving.
• 48% of prisoners have a history of debt problems.
• Over 2/3rds of under 18s held are reconvicted within one year of being in custody.

Abolish prisons. They don't work. We need a humane criminal sanction system based on prevention, rehabilitation and mutual justice, not vengeance - which is a very unproductive sentiment.