According to the Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics (SPACE) published on Tuesday 5 April, the downward trend in the prison population observed over the last 10 years in most European States has been reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Several factors have contributed to the decline between January 2020 and January 2021: a decline in certain types of crime due to traffic restrictions introduced during the pandemic, a slowdown in judicial systems, and release programmes introduced in some countries to prevent or slow the spread of Covid-19.
In addition, restrictions on the movement of prisoners linked to the pandemic (reduction in temporary exit permits and work permits) could explain the significant drop in the number of escapes (2.2 per 10,000 prisoners in 2020 compared to 8.2 in 2019).
As of 1 January 2021, there were 1,474,172 prisoners in the 49 (out of 52) prison administrations that provided data, which corresponds to a prison population rate of 102 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.
For the 48 administrations documented in both 2020 and 2021, this rate has decreased from 104.3 to 101.9 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants (-2.3%). (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)