RSS
The Council of Europe published its annual penal statistics:Romania, country where the imprisonment rate has decreased the most
Eight countries reported a serious overall problem of overcrowding in their prison administrations: North Macedonia (122.3), Romania (120.5), France (116.3), Italy (115.0), Republic of Moldova (113.4), Serbia (109.2), Portugal (105.9) and the Czech Republic (105.6). Another four had a prison density above 100 inmates per 100 places Greece (101.0), Austria (100.7), Slovenia (100.5) and Denmark (100.5).
The prison administrations with the largest prison population were Russia (602,176 inmates), UK (England and Wales) (84,373), Poland (73,822), France (69,596) and Germany (64,193). The prison administrations where the number of inmates decreased the most with regard to the previous year were Romania (-17%), Bulgaria (-16.3%), Norway (-10.1%), Latvia (-10.1), North Macedonia (-9.6%), Armenia (-9.5%) and Finland (-9.5%). The prison administrations where the number of inmates grew the most were Iceland (+31.5%), Denmark (+7.2%), Italy (+7.2%), Netherlands (+6.7%) and Montenegro (+5.6%)(excluding countries with less than 300,000 inhabitants).
The countries where the incarceration rate decreased the most with regard to the previous year were Romania (-16%), Bulgaria (-15%), Norway (-11.6), Finland (-9.9%) and North Macedonia (-9.7%), followed by Armenia (-8.7%), Latvia (-8.4%), Luxembourg (-7.1%), Estonia (-5.7%) and Cyprus (-5.5%). On the other hand, incarceration rates increased the most in Iceland (+25.4%), Italy (+7.5%), Netherlands (+5.9%), Denmark (+5.8%) and Montenegro (+5.5%).
Overall in Europe pre-trial detainees represented 22.4% of the total prison population. The prison administrations with the highest proportions of pre-trial detainees were the Netherlands (41.8%), Denmark (40.5%), Switzerland (39.3%), Armenia (36.7%), Italy (34.5%), Greece (32.4%), Northern Ireland (UK)(32%) and France (29.5%), excluding countries with less than 300,000 inhabitants. The prison administrations with the lowest proportions of pre-trial detainees were Czech Republic (8.2%), North Macedonia (8.4%),Romania (8.6%), Lithuania (9.3%), Poland (9.8%), BiH: Republika Srpska (11.2%), England and Wales (UK) (11.4%), Bulgaria (12.5%), Spain (Catalonia) (14.3%), Spain (State administration) (14.4%) and Georgia (14.8%).
The length of imprisonment across Europe was on average 8.2 months. Prison administrations with the highest average length on imprisonment were Azerbaijan (37.7 months), Portugal (31.1), Romania (24.2), Czech Republic (24.0), Spain (State administration) (21.8), North Macedonia (20.4), Republic of Moldova (19.9) and Spain (Catalonia) (19.3). Those with the lowest average length of detention were Cyprus (1.2 months), Switzerland (1.6), Netherlands (3.5), Denmark (3.9), UK (Northern Ireland) (4.2), Montenegro (4.6), Croatia (4.7), Ireland (4.9) and Norway (4.9) (this is excluding countries with less than 300,000 inhabitants).