Filenews 9 April 2021
Cyprus was in third place, along with France, among the European countries with the highest prison overcrowding, according to the Council of Europe's annual statistics on the prison population, known as SPACE I.
According to a report, the countries where total overcrowding was most severe at 31 January 2020 were Turkey (127 inmates per 100 available places), Italy (120 inmates per 100 available places), Belgium (117 inmates per 100 available places ), Cyprus (116 inmates per 100 available places), France (116 inmates per 100 available places), Hungary (113 inmates per 100 available places) Romania (113 inmates per 100 available places) , Greece (109 inmates per 100 available places, Slovenia (109 inmates per 100 available places) and Serbia (107 inmates per 100 available places).
Cyprus had a total of 93.4 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, which brings it below the European average of 124 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. The top three countries are Turkey with 357.2 prisoners per 100,000, Russia with 356.1 and Georgia with 263.8.
12.8% of prisoners in Cyprus are over 50 years of age, and 2.3% over 65. The European average is 15.3% and 2.7% respectively. 4.5% of prisoners in Cyprus are women compared to 5.6% which is the European average.
Also in Cyprus 31% of prisoners do not complete their sentence in prison compared to 26% which is the European average.
Cyprus is also the fourth highest-served country to serve time for drug-related violations of the law, with 27% compared to 18% in the European median.
In 2019 Cyprus was first in prison admissions with 835.4 admissions per 100,000 inhabitants while the European average was 177.6. However, Cyprus is the penultimate country with a sentence of 1.3 months ahead of San Marino alone, which it cites as an average term of 0 months. The European average is 11 months, while Azerbaijan is first with 32.9 months.
Source: eyenews/CYPE
