Filenews 6 April 2022
Cyprus recorded the largest decrease in the prison rate in 2021 among the countries of the Council of Europe (CoE), according to the Council of State's Annual Statistics on the Penal System in 2021. However, it remains one of the first countries with the highest prison overcrowding.
Of the 48 prison administrations that provided data for both January 2020 and January 2021, the incarceration rate increased in only three states with more than 300,000 inhabitants, Sweden (8.2%), Romania (6.6%) and North Macedonia (5.4%).
The prison rate decreased the most in Cyprus (-28.3%), Montenegro (-24.4%), Slovenia (-22.1%), Lithuania (-13.4%), Finland (-13.2%), Georgia (-12.1%), France (-11.7%), Armenia (-11.5%), Italy (-11.1%), the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) (-10.9%), Portugal (-10.8%) and Latvia (-10.3%). It remained stable in 14 prison administrations.
Overall, in Europe, prison density decreased by 5.3% from 31 January 2020 to 31 January 2021 (from 90.2 to 85.4 prisoners per 100 available places).
As of January 31, 2021, the countries with the largest prison population were Russia (478,714 prisoners), Turkey (272,115), the United Kingdom (87,035), (Poland (67,894), France (62,673), Germany (59,045), Spain (55,110), Italy (53,329) and Ukraine (49,520).
The average prison rate in Europe was 102 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. The countries with the highest prison rates were Russia (328 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants), Turkey (325), Georgia (232), Azerbaijan (216), Slovakia (192), Lithuania (190), the Czech Republic (180), Hungary (180) and Poland (179).
According to the information provided by the prison administrations, six countries had a prison density of more than 105 prisoners per 100 places, an indicator of severe overcrowding. These countries are Romania (119 prisoners per 100 places), Greece (111), Cyprus (111), Belgium (108), Turkey (108) and Italy (106).
In Europe, overall, 15.3% of the prison population were foreigners. The prison administrations with the highest percentages of foreign prisoners (in countries with more than 300,000 inhabitants) were Luxembourg (73%), Switzerland (71%), Greece (60%), Austria (50%), Catalonia (Spain) (48%), Belgium (44%), Cyprus (43%), Estonia (33%), Italy (32%) and Slovenia (32%). The prison administrations with the lowest proportion of foreign prisoners were Romania (1%), the Republic of Moldova (1.2%), Poland (1.9%), Lithuania (1.9%), Slovakia (2.1%), Azerbaijan (2.2%), Ukraine (2.4%) and Albania (2.4%).
Overall, the suicide rate in European prisons in 2020 was 5.7 per 10,000 inmates (average). Prison administrations in countries with over 300,000 inhabitants with the highest suicide rates were France (27.9 suicides per 10,000 prisoners), Latvia (19.7), Portugal (18.4), Luxembourg (18), Belgium (15.4), Spain (Catalonia) (14), Lithuania (13.2), Estonia (12.8), the Netherlands (12.7) and Italy (11.4).
The survey shows that the average length of imprisonment in Europe in 2020 was 8.9 months. The countries with the highest average prison sentence were Azerbaijan (35 months), Portugal (31), the Republic of Moldova (31), Russia (29), Ukraine (29), the Czech Republic (25), Romania (25), Greece (23) Spain (22), Italy (18), Georgia (16), Albania (15), Estonia (15), Slovakia (15) and North Macedonia (14).
CNA
