A Council of Europe report published on Tuesday 14 March indicated that the number of people held in European prisons decreased by 6.8% from 2014 to 2015, although prison overcrowding remained a problem in 15 countries and little had been done to rectify this problem.
In 2015, 1,404,398 people were held in penitentiary institutions across Europe, which is 102,880 inmates fewer than the previous year. The incarceration rate (Prison Population Rate), which is often used as an indicator of how punitive anti-crime policies are, also fell by 7% from 124 inmates to 115.7 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants.
Significant reductions in the incarceration rate were recorded in Greece (-18.8%), Croatia (-10.2%), Denmark (-11.9%), Northern Ireland (-9.7%), the Netherlands (-9.5%), Lithuania (-8.8%), Romania (- 8.6%) and Slovenia (-8.2%). On the other hand, the incarceration rate grew most in Georgia (+20.5%), “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (+12%), Turkey (+11.6%), the Czech Republic (+11.4%) and Albania (+10.3%).
The countries with the highest incarceration rates were Russia (439.2 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants), Lithuania (277.7), Georgia (274.6), Azerbaijan (249.3), Latvia (223.4), Turkey (220.4) and the Republic of Moldova (219.9).
The report also points out that the Netherlands (53) and some Nordic countries – namely Finland (54.8), Denmark (56.1) and Sweden (58.6) - appear to be those resorting less often to imprisonment and thus registering the lowest rates.
15 countries experiencing prison overcrowding
The report notes that, “Despite the overall reduction in the prison population in 2015, there was no progress at the pan-European level to reduce overcrowding, and the number of inmates remained above available places in one third of the prison administrations. The situation improved in some countries and deteriorated in others”. The number of inmates for every 100 available spaces in European prisons was 93.7 (93.6 in 2014), but the number of prison administrations suffering from overcrowding grew from 13 to 15.
Prison administrations that continued to be acutely overcrowded were those of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (138.2 inmates per 100 places), Spain (State Administration) (133.1), Hungary (129.4), Belgium (127), Albania (119.6), France (113.4) and Portugal (113). Other countries that continued to suffer from overcrowding were Serbia (106.4), Slovenia (105.8), Italy (105.6), Austria (103.3) and Romania (101.3).
In a press release, the Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland explained, “The drop in the overall number of people in prison in Europe is welcome. Increasing the use of alternative sentences does not necessarily lead to higher crime rates but can help to reintegrate offenders and tackle overcrowding”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)