Prison overcrowding continues to be an acute and persistent problem in a significant number of European prison administrations, according to the Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations (SPACE I) for 2023, released today. In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, twelve prison administrations reported having more inmates than places available in January 2023.
For Armenia, the total number of inmates was 2,357 persons.
Incarceration rates (number of inmates per 100,000 inhabitants)
From 31 January 2022 to 31 January 2023, the median incarceration rate grew by 2.4% in countries exceeding one million inhabitants.
The countries with the highest incarceration rates were Turkey (408 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants), Georgia (256), Azerbaijan (244), the Republic of Moldova (242), Hungary (211), Poland (194), the Slovak Republic (183), Albania (179), Czechia (176), Lithuania (174) and Latvia (172). Other countries with high incarceration rates were Montenegro (168), Serbia (162), Estonia (151), North Macedonia (142).
Not taking into account countries with less than 500,000 inhabitants, the lowest incarceration rates were found in the prison administrations of Finland (52), the Netherlands (52), Norway (55), Germany (67), Slovenia (68), Denmark (71), Switzerland (73), Armenia (79), Sweden (80) and Ireland (85).
In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, the prison administrations where the incarceration rate grew the most as compared to the previous report were the Republic of Moldova (+52.1%), North Macedonia (+25.5%), Cyprus (+24.8%), Turkey (+15%), Azerbaijan (+12.5%), Ireland (+11.7%), Montenegro (+11.3%), Armenia (+10.6%), Croatia (+10.4%), Hungary (+8.7%), Northern Ireland (UK) (+8.3%), Georgia (+8.2%), Bulgaria (+8.1%), Austria (+6.8%), Italy (+5.7%), and Sweden (5.1%).
Of the prison administrations of countries with a population exceeding 500,000 inhabitants, only those of Lithuania (-8.9%), Estonia (-8.8%) and Greece (-5.2%) reported a noteworthy decrease in their incarceration rates.
In other 23 prison administrations, the prison population rates remained stable (with small increases or decreases): Finland (+4.7%), Serbia (+4.2%), Portugal (+3.5%), UK (England and Wales) (+3%), Slovenia (+2.1%), Poland (+1.8%), Switzerland (+1.7%), Albania (+1.6%), Belgium (+1.4%), Denmark (+1.1%), Czechia (+0.8%), Romania (0.0%), Latvia (-0.4%), Germany (-0.5%), France (-0.5%), Spain (State administration) (-0.8%), Ukraine (-0.9%), Spain (-1.3%), Norway (-1.3%), Slovakia (-1.8%), Scotland (UK) (-1.9%), Netherlands (-2.6%) and Spain (Catalonia) (-4.1%).
Prison density – overcrowding
Overall, in Europe, median prison density decreased by 2% from January 2022 to January 2023 from 91.6 to 93.5 inmates per 100 places available in the 37 prison administrations that participated in both years’ surveys.
Seven prison administrations reported a prison density of more than 105 inmates per 100 places, an indicator of severe overcrowding: Cyprus (166 inmates per 100 places), Romania (120 inmates per 100 places), France (119), Belgium (115), Hungary (112), Italy (109) and Slovenia (107).
Other prison administrations with very high prison density were Greece (103 inmates per 100 places available), Sweden (102), North Macedonia (101), Croatia (101), Türkiye (100), Ireland (99), Portugal (98), Finland (97), Denmark (97), England and Wales (UK) (97) and Azerbaijan (96).
In prison administrations of countries exceeding 500,000 inhabitants, prison density was the lowest in Ukraine (48 inmates per 100 available places), Armenia (53), Spain (State Administration (60), Estonia (68), Bulgaria (69), Lithuania (69). Other prison administrations had the prison density was the following: Luxembourg (71), Germany (78), Montenegro (78), Spain (Catalonia) (78), Norway (80), Georgia (82), Poland (83), Northern Ireland (UK) (85), Slovakia (85), Albania (87).
Women inmates
As of 31 January 2023, 5 out of 100 inmates in Europe was a woman. The prison administrations of countries with more than 500,000 inhabitants where the proportion was the highest were Cyprus (9.2%), Czechia (8.5%), Latvia (7,7%), Finland (7.7%), Hungary (7.4%), and Spain (State administration) (7.2%), Slovak Republic (7.2%) and Portugal (7,2%).
The prison administrations where the percentage of women inmates was the lowest were Albania (1.3%), Croatia (1,9%), Armenia (2.6%, 61 female prisoners), Azerbaijan (2.9%), France (3,2%) and Georgia (3,4%).
Foreigners
Overall, in Europe – on 31 January 2023 – 27% of the prison population were foreigners (the European average). Prison administrations with the highest proportions of foreign inmates in countries with over 500,000inhabitants were Luxembourg (78%), Switzerland (71%), Greece (57%), Cyprus (55%), Austria (51%), Belgium (42%), Germany (40%), Slovenia (34%), Estonia (33%), Italy (32%), Spain (30%) and Denmark (29%).
Prison administrations with the lowest percentage of foreign inmates were Romania (1,1%), Republic of Moldova (1.5%), Azerbaijan (1,9%), Ukraine (2,1%), Latvia (2,4%), Poland (2.6%) and Albania (2.8%).
There were 177 foreigners (male and female) among inmates in Armenia (6,2% of all the prison population).
Pre-trial detainees
On 31 January 2023, on average, almost one third of inmates in European prisons was in pre-trial detention. In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, the prison administrations with the highest proportions of pre-trial detainees were Albania (55%), Armenia (53%), Luxembourg (49%), Switzerland (46%), the Netherlands (45%), Montenegro (42%) and Northern Ireland (41%).
The prison administrations with the lowest percentages of pre-trial detainees were Czechia (7.5%), Poland (11.4%), Lithuania (11.2%), Romania (12.1%), North Macedonia (12.3%), Slovak Republic (14.6%), Spain (State Administration) (15.9%) and Estonia (16.8%).
Length of imprisonment
In 2022, the median average length of imprisonment in European prison administrations was 10.1 months. Prison administrations from countries with more than 500,000 inhabitants with the highest average length of imprisonment were Portugal (30.2 months), Azerbaijan (27.2), Ukraine (26.1), Republic of Moldova (25.3), Romania (24), Czechia (22), Lithuania (20.5), Spain (State Administration) (19.7), Estonia (19.2), Greece (18.4) and Armenia (18).
The prison administrations from countries with over 500,000 inhabitants which had the lowest average length of imprisonment were Switzerland (2.1), Luxembourg (3.7), North Macedonia (3), Netherlands (4.2), Germany (4.4), Northern Ireland (UK) (4.9).
Suicides
The median suicide rate in European prisons in 2022 was 5.3 suicides per 10,000 inmates. The prison administrations in countries with over 500,000 inhabitants with the highest suicide rates were Latvia (21.7), Switzerland (20.2), France (19.1), Scotland (UK) (18.9), Spain (Catalonia) (16.8), Italy (15), Belgium (14.3), Luxembourg (14.2) and Slovenia (13.9).
In Armenia in prison administrations the suicide rate was (12.7 per 10,000 inmates)
Offences
On 31 January 2023, drug-related offences continued to be the most common main conviction among prisoners; these offenders constituted 18.5% of the prison population, followed by homicide or attempted homicide (12.8%), theft (11.5%), robbery (7.7%), assault and battery (6.7%), sexual offences excluding rape (4.6%), rape (4.3%), economic or financial crimes (3%) road traffic offences (3%) in the 45 prison administrations that provided this data.
In nine countries over 500,000 inhabitants, more one quarter or more of all inmates had been convicted for drug-related offences: Latvia (42%), Azerbaijan (42%), Türkiye (34%), Italy (31%), Belgium (29%), Serbia (29%), Denmark (27%), Sweden (25%) and Malta (25%).
There is no information in the report about the breakdown of inmates by offences in Armenia.
