Brussels, 03/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - Prisons are overcrowded in half of European countries and were operating at maximum capacity in 2011, with an average of 99.5 prisoners per 100 places, states a report from the Council of Europe published on Friday 3 May.
The report shows that some 20 of the Council of Europe's 47 member countries are overcrowded, with more prisoners than prisons were designed for, including in France (113.4 prisoners per 100 places), Belgium (127.2) and Hungary (138.2). Top of the list are Serbia (157.6), Greece (151.7) and Italy (147).
The report says that “overcrowding remains a major concern despite a slight 2% decrease in 2011”. In September 2011, European prisons held a total of 1,825,356 detainees, compared with 1,861,246 in 2010. However, the average incarceration rate in Europe rose from 149 to 154 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011, because the number of prisoners is not rising, but it is also not falling in the same way in all countries. Many prison authorities are finding it very difficult to deal with the overcrowding, says the study.
The prisoners serving jail terms in September 2011 were mainly found guilty of drugs offences (17.5%), theft (17.5%), burglary (12%) and murder (12%). The average incarceration time in 2010 was nine months, with imprisonment while awaiting trial averaging five months.
The average age of prisoners in Europe was 33 in 2011. Women accounted for 5.3% of the prison population. On average 21% of prisoners are foreigners, but there are huge differences between countries. In Eastern Europe, foreigners rarely make up more than 2% of prisoners, compared with usually more than 30% in Western Europe. The rate of deaths of prisoners in 2011 was 28 per 10,000 prisoners, suicide being the cause of death in 24% of cases. (SP/transl.fl)