The figures come just a day after the Justice Secretary announced changes to prison recall as a further emergency measure on prison overcrowding.
The number of criminals sent to jail in England and Wales hit a six-year high in 2024, driven partly by the disorder in towns and cities following the Southport killings, in fresh evidence of pressures facing prisons.
Some 79,812 offenders received immediate custodial sentences last year, up 11% on 2023 and the highest annual total since 2018 when 81,670 defendants were jailed, according to new figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Suspended sentences also increased, jumping 12% year-on-year from 43,717 to 48,949, the highest since 2017.
Community sentences rose by 6% from 70,803 to 74,847, a five-year high.
The figures come just a day after the Justice Secretary announced changes to prison recall as a further emergency measure on prison overcrowding, as she warned jails are on track to be down to “zero capacity” by November.
Under the move, some criminals serving sentences between one and four years who are recalled to prison will be returned to custody only for a fixed 28-day period.
Offenders are recalled to prison if they commit another offence or breach licence conditions, such as by missing probation appointments, when they are released early but remain on licence.
The emergency measure, expected to free up 1,400 prison places, comes ahead of the recommendations of the independent sentencing review, which has been looking at tougher punishments outside of prison as part of Government efforts to tackle jail overcrowding.
The review, led by former justice secretary David Gauke, is expected to be published in the coming weeks.
Some 912 people had been prosecuted by the end of 2024 for offences linked to the summer disorder, of which 680 were convicted and 651 sentenced, the MoJ said.
Of the 651 sentenced, 497 received an immediate custodial sentence, 33 a suspended sentence and 83 a community sentence.
The average length of a custodial sentence was 23 months.
Separate figures published on Thursday show the number of suspended sentences handed to people in England and Wales convicted of having a knife has reached its highest annual total in a decade.
Some 3,958 convictions for possession of an article with a blade or point led to a suspended sentence in 2024, up from 3,613 in 2023 and more than double the 1,718 in 2014.
Possession of a bladed article accounted for the highest proportion (69%) of all knife and offensive weapon sentencing offences last year.
The number of fines for blade possession stood at 186, down from 263 in 2023 and the lowest since current data began in 2014.
There were 4,458 knife convictions that led to an immediate custodial sentence, down from 4,621 the previous year and below the pre-pandemic peak of 5,642 in 2019.
