Legislation relevant to the consideration of trends in the series of data for 1984-94 presented in the tables is outlined in the introduction. The tables are presented under the following topics: the prison population in 1994; remand prisoners; young offenders under sentence; adult male prisoners under sentence; adult female prisoners under sentence; noncriminal prisoners; fine defaulters; life sentence prisoners; the ethnic origin and nationality of the prison population; reconvictions of prisoners discharged from prison in 1992; and segregated inmates, restraints, and special cells. The average population in custody, including those in police cells in 1994, was 48,000, 4,200 higher than in 1993 and the highest level since 1988. The population in 1994 was 5,400 higher than in 1984. There were increases of 3,500 in the male remand population; 5,600 in the male adult sentenced population; 300 females; and 350 noncriminal prisoners. These were partly offset by a drop of 4,300 in the number of sentenced male young offenders. The size of the inmate population has been greatly affected by changes in policy and practice in the criminal justice system over the period. Extensive tables