It is a century since the Prison Act placed a statutory obligation on the Prison Commissioners to present an annual report to the Secretary of State and Parliament; in recent years numerical facts relating to the prison population have been published in a separate volume of Statistical Tables. Together these volumes provide an account of the administration of the penal system during the previous year. To those who are familiar with bureaucratic reticence in these matters the reports provide welcome information: for others who work in the prison service, normally constrained by the Offical Secrets Acts (1911 and 1920), the reports act as a valuable mouthpiece.