Ethnic, national and religious composition of prisoners in UK prisons: structure and dynamics

The article analyzes the available statistical data on the ethnic, national and religious composition of prisoners mainly in prisons in England and Wales and to a lesser extent in Scotland. Prisons in Northern Ireland are excluded from the survey due to lack of data. Nationalities in English statistics mean foreign citizens. Among the foreigners in the prisons of England and Wales, the citizens of Albania are especially numerous, although their number is not large among the population of the country. In addition to Albanians, there are disproportionately high proportions of Vietnamese, Somali and Jamaican citizens in prisons. UK statistics single out such categories as «black», «white», «asian», «mixed» (mestizo) and «other» as ethnographic groups. Over the past two decades, the proportion of representatives of the «black» group in the prisons of England is 4 times higher than in society. In Scotland, there is also a 1,5-fold excess in this group. However, the population of Scotland is almost exclusively represented by the «white» group (96%), and the number of other groups is relatively small for reasonable conclusions. Statistics on the religious composition of prisoners in prisons in England and Wales shows a disproportion in the ratio of individual groups of believers in society and places of detention. In particular, the percentage of Muslims in prisons is three times higher than their presence in society, and for Buddhists, a fourfold excess is recorded. In contrast, Hindus are three times less likely to be represented in prisons than in society. In Scotland such sharp discrepancies were not revealed.