The revised methodology was chosen due to changes in sentencing policy, which resulted in more increases in inmate populations than previously predicted. Scenarios included further increases in the proportions of offenders sentenced to prison, a continuation of current sentencing trends, and continued sentencing of the same proportion to imprisonment as in 1997. Results of the original methodology predicted that the prison population in England and Wales would be 82,800 in 2005. In contrast, the new methodology indicated that the prison population would be between 64,400 and 92,600 in 2005. Figure, tables, footnotes, and endnotes