Strasbourg, 13/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 11 February, the Council of Europe published its 2013 edition of Annual Council of Europe Crime Figures that reveal a stagnation or deterioration of living standards for prisoners, an improvement in whose standards of living has no doubt been held back by the economic crisis. The economic crisis does not seem to have had any great impact on the number of people sent to prison, although there was a slight fall in prison overpopulation.
Looking at the figures in detail reveals that in 2012, average expenditure in penal establishments stood at 97 euros per detainee per day, up 2 euros on 2011. The figures range from 2 euros a day in the Russian Federation to 317 euros a day in Sweden. Looking at the period 2007 (the start of the economic crisis) to 2012, expenditure per detainee fell from an average of 99.1 euros to 96.7 euros, with the median expenditure falling from 53.4 euros to 41.6 euros. Total expenditure by 50 prison services (of the total of 52 in the 47 Council of Europe member states) stood at €25.429 billion in 2013.
Between 2012 and 2013, the number of detainees fell by around 56,700, but the median detention rate rose by 5% between 2012 (127 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants) and 2013 (134 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants). The median density in penal establishments was 96 prisoners for each 100 places in 2013, two fewer than in 2012 and three fewer than in 2011. Prison overpopulation remained an acute problem for 21 prison services in ten Council of Europe member states: Italy (148 detainees per 100 places), Hungary (145), Cyprus (138), Belgium (134), the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (124), Portugal (117), France (117), Romania (116), Croatia (111) and Albania (110).
A slight decrease in short incarcerations was recorded. As at 1 September 2013, on average 17% (median 13%) of the total number of convicted prisoners were serving a sentence of less than twelve months. In 2012, the average was 20% and the median 15%. Sentences of up to one year are used as frequently as those of between three and five years and come fourth in the top ten prison sentences in Europe. People sentenced to more than ten years in prison made up 11.2% of the prison population in 2013, an increase of 10.2% on 2012. A slight increase was seen in the total percentage of foreign prisoners (14.1% of the total in 2013, up from 13% in 2012). The number of foreign prisoners tops 30% in a number of Western European countries, compared with 2% in Eastern Europe. In 2013, the most common crimes for which people are imprisoned were, yet again, drugs-related and theft. Of every 100 convicted prisoners, 18 were serving time for drugs-related crimes (compared with 17 in 2012) and 16 for theft (compared with 17 in 2012). The average mortality rate among prisoners in 2012 was 23 per 10,000 detainees (median 28), with the second highest cause of death (after natural causes) being suicide, which accounted for 23% of all deaths in European penal institutions.
The report was based on a SPACE survey carried out for the Council of Europe by the École des Sciences Criminelles at Lausanne University in Switzerland. The 2013 report includes information from 50 of the 52 prison offices in the Council of Europe's 47 member states. (Véronique Leblanc)