The North's prison population has fallen for the third year in a row, according to the annual report of the Northern Ireland Prison Service, writes Jim Cusack in Belfast.
The prison system, once almost overwhelmed by having to contain more than 3,000 long-term prisoners, has undergone "subtle" pattern changes in the past three years, the report states.
The number of sex offenders in the prison system has increased by 54 per cent. The number of drug offenders has increased by 20 per cent in the past three years.
The Northern Ireland prison population has fallen to about 1,600.