Risk-averse courts denying bail

MPs call on justice secretary to review Bail Act

Should you be sent to prison if you have not been convicted of a crime?

Generally speaking, no, said parliament when it passed the Bail Act in 1976. But the number of unconvicted prisoners in England and Wales is the highest it has been for at least 50 years. Last September, there were 14,500 of them — prisoners who were not serving sentences but who ha…