In The Times (hat tip: TDK), Dalrymple criticizes a book by economist (and former prisoner) Vicky Pryce:
There is practically no cliché about penal policy that Ms Pryce does not accept uncritically, for example that Britain has a high imprisonment rate by Western European standards. In fact, our rate of imprisonment per crime (rather than per head of population) is about average. Spain’s was far higher; in 2008, it had one prisoner per 32.6 crimes whereas Britain had one prisoner per 56.1 crimes.