Scottish Government

2. Key points

• The average daily population during 2008-09 reached 7,835. This represents an increase of 6 per cent from the previous year, and 31 per cent over the past 10 years since 1999-00 ( Table 1).
• The number of prisoners on remand or recalled from licence/supervision increased disproportionately compared to sentenced prisoners. The average daily population of remand prisoners has grown by 72 per cent since 1999-00 (from 976 to 1,678), while the number of recalls has risen nearly five-fold from 100 to 599 over the same period ( Table 1).
• These groups now make up a larger proportion of the total population than they did 10 years ago. In 2008-09, the remand population represented 21 per cent of the total and the recall population 8 per cent, a marked increase from 16 and 2 per cent since 1999-00 ( Table 1).
• During 2008-09, the average daily population was 7,422 for men and 413 for women. However, there has also been a disproportionate increase in the population of women prisoners: while the male population has increased by 29 per cent since 1999-00, the female population has nearly doubled (Table 1).
• The average daily population on Home Detention Curfew ( HDC) during 2008-09 was 371, an increase of 20 per cent over the previous year. The number of releases on HDC during 2008-09 was 2,056, a slight drop of 1 per cent compared to 2,082 the previous year ( Table 8).