We jail too many people?

The bleeding heart left wing commentators beloved by the BBC Toady Today programme endlessly spout the line that Britain jails more people than any other EU country and this is wrong.

It is true that the UK does jail a higher percentage of our population than other EU countries, but this is not a result of a harsh sentencing regime but as a result of more crime.

According to the Council of Europe and Civitas, we jail 12.4 prisoners per 1,000 crimes, compared with an EU average of 17.5.

In fact, if we jailed offenders at the same rate as Spain (who imprison 57 prisoners per 1,000 crimes), our prison population would be 369,000, instead of 80,000.

Maybe contrary to what so many politicians, judges and commentators claim, our penal policy is, by European standards, actually rather soft.