The Northern Ireland Prison Population 2023/24 report

Date published: 24 October 2024

The report presents key data relating to the average daily prison population, receptions and discharges for Northern Ireland during 2023/24.

The key findings were as follows:

Average Daily Prison Population

• The overall average daily prison population increased by 11.4% during 2023/24 to 1,877. The male population increased from 1,607 to 1,787 while the female population increased from 78 to 90.
• During 2023/24, the average daily immediate custody population increased by 10.1% to 1,176. This is the highest the immediate custody population has been since 2015/16.
• The remand population increased by 13.0% to 686 during 2023/24 from 607 the previous year and is at the highest level it has been over the last nine years.
• Prisoners aged between 30 and 39 years made up the largest proportion (37.7%) of the average daily immediate custody prison population and the remand population (37.6%).
• In terms of custodial sentence length, 27.7% of the average daily population during 2023/24 had custodial sentences of less than or equal to one year, a slight decrease from 28.0% during 2022/23.
• Violence Against the Person offences continued to account for the largest proportion (34.6%) of all principal offence categories for the daily immediate custody prison population and for the remand population (36.9%).
• During 2023/24, those identifying as Catholic represented the largest proportion of the average daily prison population at 51.5% (967), while Protestant denominations and Other Christians accounted for 31.8% (596).

Receptions and Discharges

• At 4,163, the number of receptions during 2023/24 was higher than 4,096 the previous year, an increase of 1.6%. This is the highest the number of receptions has been over the nine year reporting period.
• Receptions into immediate custody decreased slightly by 0.2% during 2023/24, to 814 which was similar when compared to 816 in 2022/23. There were large increases in receptions in 2022/23 (up 21.8% to 816) and 2021/22 (up 47.3% to 670) following the first full financial year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Remand receptions increased by 3.0% over the last year, up from 3,171 in 2022/23 to 3,267 during 2023/24.
• The number of receptions for fine default and non-criminal decreased by 24.8% from 109 during 2022/23 to 82 during 2023/24. This is the first decrease in the number of receptions for fine default and non-criminal since 2020/21.
• 30 to 39 year olds accounted for the largest number of immediate custody receptions (321; 39.4%) (Figure 11 and Table 17c). They also accounted for the largest number of remand receptions (1,238; 37.9%).
• The majority of immediate custody receptions had a custodial sentence length of less than one year (76.5%) a small decrease from 77.0% during 2022/23.
• Public Order and Violence Against the Person offences accounted for the largest proportion of immediate custody receptions, at 25.4% (207) and 20.4% (166) respectively, while Violence Against the Person offences accounted for 34.0% of remand receptions (1,110).
• The number of discharges increased by 7.4%, from 3,823 during 2022/23 to 4,104 during 2023/24.