England and Wales sentence more prisoners to life than all 46 other Council of Europe member states combined, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.

Figures released this week show that 12,090 men, women and children in England and Wales are serving life sentences, including indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP). The other 46 countries, including Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, recorded a combined total of 11,467.

The figures were released a month after the Prison Reform Trust reported that around 70% of the prison population had two or more mental health disorders – giving a figure of around 8,500 mentally ill prisoners serving life sentences.

Howard League director Frances Crook said IPP numbers are increasing, with 100 offenders going to prison every month on an IPP, while only 47 have been released since the sentence’s introduction in 2005. ‘The parole board lacks resources and is risk averse, not least because of political pressure to be seen to be hard on crime,’ she said. ‘Some prisoners arrive with mental conditions, others are driven mad by prison itself.’