Judges fight plans for US-style sentencing / Guardian, 23 June 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/23/law.prisonsandprobation?gusrc=rss&feed=politics
Clare Dyer
"The grid, modelled on a system in Minnesota, is intended to tailor the number of prisoners to the resources - and places - available. The idea has been seized on by ministers facing overflowing jails as a result of the government's criminal justice measures over the last 10 years. Prison numbers have soared by more than 20,000 in a decade and more people are locked up in England and Wales per head of population than in any other country in western Europe."