40% fall in defaulters sent to jail after law change

New laws diverting fine defaulters from jail have driven a 40% drop in the number of committals to prison.

The number of committals fell from 15,099 in 2016 to 9,287 in 2017, attributed to a 73% reduction in imprisonment for non-payment of court fines (from 8,439 to 2,261).

Excluding fines, sentenced committals have remained essentially stable — and the daily average number of prisoners in custody stood at 3,680 in 2017, compared to 3,718 in 2016.