“Twenty prison administrations released more than 118,000 inmates to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the first month of lockdown”, reveals the special SPACE I report ‘Prisoners in Europe in Pandemic Times’ by the University of Lausanne for the Council of Europe.
Published this Thursday, this document states that between mid-March and mid-April, 20 out of 43 prison administrations resorted to measures such as general pardons, early or provisional release and other alternatives to deprivation of liberty. The three countries most affected are Turkey with 102,944 releases (35% of its prison population), Cyprus with 121 releases (16%) and Slovenia with 230 releases (16%).
Read the SPACE I report: https://bit.ly/3eePyj2
The Council of Europe has also published the annual SPACE II survey. This shows that the overall incarceration rate (number of prisoners per 100 000 inhabitants) remained stable in Europe between 2018 and 2019, with only a very slight increase (from 104 to 104.5 prisoners per 100 000 inhabitants).
The survey also indicates that the use of non-custodial sanctions and measures increased by 7.9% from 1,547,572 to 1,699,676 persons affected across the 28 probation services that provided data for both years.
See the SPACE II report: https://bit.ly/37FSmU3 (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)