---------------------+--------+--------+---------------------+------------ Number in Custody on: |Local |Convict |Preventive Detention |Borstal | Prisons|Prisons |Prisons |Institutions ---------------------+--------+--------+---------------------+------------ 4th Aug. 1914 |13,580 | 2,601 | 247 | 925 | | | | 1st March 1921 | 8,535 | 1,305 | 73 | 1213 ---------------------+--------+--------+---------------------+------------ The elimination of many thousands of petty offenders from the prison population, due to the causes enumerated above, has had the effect of reducing enormously the _volume_ of recidivism to be found in Local Prisons at the present time, though the _proportion_ who had been previously convicted remains about the same as formerly. Thus, the total with _more than three previous convictions_ who were committed during the first three months of 1920, as compared with a similar period in 1914, shows a decrease of no less than 73 per cent. in the case of males and 66 per cent. in the case of females. The actual figures are as follows:-- -------------------------------+----------------------------------------- |Receptions on conviction during the first| | three months of | | 1914. | 1920. | +----------+--------+--------------------- | M. | F. | M. | F. -------------------------------+----------+--------+--------+------------- Number received | | | | with 1-3 previous convictions| 6,533 | 1,772 | 2,132 | 685 " 4-5 " " | 1,704 | 845 | 397 | 189 " 6-10 " " | 2,490 | 832 | 513 | 226 " 11-20 " " | 2,243 | 816 | 475 | 257 " over 20 " " | 1,866 | 1,476 | 453 | 583 -------------------------------+----------+--------+--------+------------- As regards the population in Convict Prisons, the great bulk of whom are classified as Recidivist, only about 700 are so classified at the present time, as compared with 2,000 at the beginning of the present century; while the supply of the Juvenile-Adult sentenced to penal servitude has almost ceased: in 1901 there were 200 lads 16-21 serving sentences of penal servitude--to-day there are 9 only.