In brief
The use of imprisonment for offenders convicted of indictable offences in the crown court has risen by more than 25% in the last 10 years and the average length of prison sentences has increased, according to statistics published by the Home Office at the end of January. The statistics show average custodial sentence lengths for indictable offences in magistrates’ courts during the same period remained between 2.7 and three months. The statistics also show that the number of offenders who received suspended sentences at magistrates courts’ for all offences has increased from 1,300 in 2004 to 7,100 in 2005.
