Figure 1 shows the figures for in countries between and . The figure clearly shows that the figures for imprisonment in the five countries mentioned indicate no pattern of or . In fact there is considerable from country to country.

In Great Britain the numbers in prison have from 30,000 in 1930 to 80,000 in . On the other hand in Australia, and particularly in New Zealand, the numbers from 1930 to 1940. Since then they have , apart from in 1980 when the numbers in prison in Australia by about 30,000 from the 1970 total. Canada is the only country in which the numbers in prison have over the period 1930 to 1980, although there have been in this . The figures for the United States indicate the number of prisoners compared to the other four countries but population size needs to be taken into in this analysis. The prison population in the United States increased rapidly from 1970 to 1980 and this be a worrying trend.