And still nobody dares mention one of the reasons - perhaps we are locking up innocent people.

I believe (and anyone with the exact quantity please post) that around 80,000 successful appeals have been granted over the past 10 years.

If true that's 8,000 a year. Which would make a huge difference to the situation.

Mend the system; don't just moan stupid rubbish about "build more prisons".

Along with how many successful appeals we'd also need the number of convictions and the number of unsuccessful appeals.

The appeals, successful or not, would also require more detail on the nature of the decision - for example wrongful evidence is not the same as a technicality.

Information without perspective is a higher form of ignorance.

Hypothetically one wrongful conviction is one too many but practically what percentage would be... how can I put this... would be reasonable/expected?

On prison over-crowding the nice BBC informed me it was an issue with longer sentencing. If so it would be another example of where knee-jerk Government pandering to the Sun and Daily Mail is a thoroughly bad idea.

Appeals 1993 (PDF)

Haven't got time to do more than skim it or find more up-to-date stuff.

Another factor I'd forgotten is those who's charges are entirely struck out and those who's sentence is reduced.

You're quite right, Zoo, many of those successful appeals are simply reduction of sentence and many others are "legal technicalities" but, on the other side, how many innocent men and women were convicted on "legal technicalities" and simply don't have the energy, resources or legal backup to discover them?

Likewise, how many "discounted" appeals that are reductions are the other side of "fitted up" victims of police clearup rates?

My experiences inside was that my situation is just the tip of the iceberg.

And I would say the real criminals are a smallish segment of about 30,000 recidivists and career criminals - clamp down on them and you have fairer justice, better run prisons, more efficient police, morally improved police methods and a safer world.

And just last week yet another Pensioner was jailed for failure to pay Council Tax. Has nobody in office got the brainpower to think of an alternative kind of penalty?

The Cat wrote:
And just last week yet another Pensioner was jailed for failure to pay Council Tax. Has nobody in office got the brainpower to think of an alternative kind of penalty?
Prison is a last resort, there are alternatives already.

Alternatives being: send a bailiff; deduct money from earnings or benefits or even bankruptcy proceedings.

I'm sure that such things as House Arrest can be considered. Maybe there are certain non-emergency council funded services which could be withheld from those who refuse to pay for them.

I'm not sure what my local council tax covers. Since it's introduction we have had a reduction in services such as policing, refuse collections, road maintenance, drainage, etc. and even talk of being charged seperately for some of those services. Meanwhile the council have managed to build a smart new office block. I'm not surprised some people refuse to pay.

How does putting someone in prison help the situation?

Until 300 years ago prison as a general punishment was almost unheard of.Physical punishments were more the order of the day.
Now it seems to be the raison d'etre for the entire corrupt and innefficient judicial system's very existance.
Sure Prisons are necessary as a detterent to serious crime,and to protect the public from dangerous people...just we do seem to have lost sight of the very reasoning we used to justify them in the first place.
Other solutions need to be considered,but not as a temporary way to avoid overcrowding,but as a permanant solution.