Prisons and Prisoners in Europe 2019: Key Findings of the SPACE I report

Prisons and Prisoners in Europe 2019:

Key Findings of the SPACE I report

Marcelo F. Aebi and Mélanie M. Tiago

1. Introduction

This document summarises the main findings of the 2019 Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics on Prison

to the European median values and are presented in the text in round numbers unless they are lower than 10;

in particular, the rates are calculated on the basis of data weighted by the population of each country (see

document.

Forty-five (45) of the 52 prison administrations in the 47 Council of Europe member states answered the SPACE I 2019 questionnaire, which corresponds to a participation rate of 87%. The following prison administrations did not answer the questionnaire: Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina (State level, Federal level, and Republika Srpska), Georgia, Malta, and Ukraine. However, data concerning the total number of inmates in Belgium, Republika Srpska (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Georgia, Malta, and Ukraine, as well as the total capacity of prison institutions in Belgium, Republika Srpska (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Georgia, and Malta were retrieved from other sources (see comments to Tables 3 and 16 of the SPACE I 2019 for further details) and are therefore included in the calculation of the relevant European median values.

2. Stock indicators: Prisons and Prisoners on 31

January 2019

On 31

January 2019, there were 1,540,484 inmates in the penal institutions of the Council of Europe member states for which data are available. This corresponds to a European prison population rate of 106 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants.

Map 1. Prison population rates (number of inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) on 31

January 2019 (N=50)

Map 1 visualises prison population rates in six categories (from less than 80 inmates to 250 or more inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) across Europe, while Figure 1 shows the detailed distribution of these rates by country. The highest prison population rates (i.e. more than 250 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) are found in the Russian Federation, Turkey and Georgia, followed (with rates of more than 200 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) by Lithuania, Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic; while the lowest prison populations (i.e. less than 80 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) are distributed across the Scandinavian countries, a few countries of the Balkan region, Germany, the Netherlands, Iceland and Northern Ireland (UK).

Figure 1. Prison population rates (inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) on 31

January 2019 (N=50)

2.9 31.3 40.3 49.8 54.8 56.4 59.7 60.6 66.4 67.1 68.9 73.5 76.4 76.7 78.9 79.2 81.2 81.3 82.5 94.9 99.0 99.6 103.2 104.5 105.6 106.1 106.6 106.7 107.5 108.2 110.1 125.2 125.7 125.7 125.9 128.7 137.9 146.0 156.1 169.5 181.1 183.4 184.5 185.5 188.9 190.1 197.0 202.6 218.2 232.1 269.7 329.0 386.1

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

SanMarino Liechtenstein Iceland Finland Monaco Netherlands Sweden Norway BH:RepublikaSrpska Slovenia Denmark Andorra Armenia Germany Croatia UK:NorthernIreland Ireland Switzerland Cyprus Belgium Greece Italy NorthMacedonia France Austria Europeanmedian Romania Bulgaria Malta Luxembourg Spain(Catalonia) Portugal Ukraine Spain(Total) Europeanaverage Spain(StateAdministration) UK:EnglandandWales UK:Scotland Serbia(Republicof) Hungary Estonia Latvia Albania Montenegro SlovakRepublic Poland Moldova CzechRepublic Azerbaijan Lithuania Georgia Turkey RussianFederation

Prisonpopulationrate(per100,000inhabitants)

Characteristics of the inmates held in European penal institutions

Age of the prison population

The median age of the inmates held in European penal institutions is 35 years. With the exception of Finland — where the median age of the inmates is 25 years— in countries with at least one million inhabitants, this age varies from 31 to 39 years (see SPACE I, Table 6).

Fifteen percent (15%) of the inmates are aged 50 or over (see SPACE I, Table 6). Thirty-nine prison administrations provided data on this indicator of the ageing of European prison populations, which is presented in Figure 2. The presence of a relatively high percentage of inmates aged fifty or over is not directly associated with the ranking of the country in other indicators presented in this study, such as the average length of imprisonment (Figure 12), the prison population rate (Figure 1), or the percentage of inmates sentenced for drug offences (Figure 8).

When one compares this indicator with the ones presented in Table 1 below, it can be seen, for example, that the prison population rate and the average length of imprisonment are very low in Norway, which at the same time is among the 5 countries with the highest percentage of inmates aged 50 or over. Conversely, Portugal is also amid these 5 countries, but has a high prison population rate and a very high length of imprisonment. On the other extreme of the distribution, Russia has the lowest percentage of inmates aged 50 or over, but the highest prison population rate. In fact, several of the countries with a low percentage of mature inmates are among the ones with the highest prison population rate (for example, Moldova, Montenegro, Lithuania and Turkey).

Figure 2. Percentage of inmates aged 50 or over in the prison population on 31

January 2019 (N=39)

0.0% 7.0% 7.1% 9.1% 9.3% 10.9% 11.0% 11.1% 11.4% 11.4% 11.9% 12.8% 13.2% 13.2% 13.3% 13.8% 14.1% 14.5% 14.6% 14.7% 14.7% 15.3% 15.3% 15.6% 15.6% 16.0% 16.0% 16.1% 16.1% 16.5% 16.5% 17.1% 17.8% 19.0% 19.2% 19.5% 19.7% 20.4% 21.0% 24.7% 33.3% 35.2%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

SanMarino RussianFederation Moldova Montenegro Lithuania Turkey Denmark Iceland Finland Albania France Ireland Romania UK:NorthernIreland Luxembourg CzechRepublic Croatia Austria Sweden Cyprus Europeanmedian SlovakRepublic Europeanaverage Serbia(Republicof) Poland NorthMacedonia Hungary Andorra Netherlands UK:EnglandandWales Greece Estonia Spain(Catalonia) Monaco Slovenia Spain(Total) Spain(StateAdministration) Norway Portugal Italy Liechtenstein Bulgaria

Gender

Ninety-five percent (95%) of the inmates held in Europe are men, and only 5% are women (see SPACE I, Table 7).

Although there are differences across countries, the underrepresentation of women in penal institutions is a constant across Europe, as can be observed in Figure 3. In countries with at least one million inhabitants, the highest percentage is only 7.9% (Russian Federation) and the lowest is 2% (Albania).

Figure 3. Percentage of female inmates in the prison population on 31

January 2019 (N=45)

0.0% 0.0% 2.0% 2.6% 2.9% 3.0% 3.2% 3.3% 3.6% 3.9% 4.1% 4.1% 4.3% 4.3% 4.3% 4.5% 4.5% 4.6% 4.6% 4.7% 4.8% 5.1% 5.1% 5.1% 5.3% 5.3% 5.3% 5.3% 5.6% 5.7% 5.7% 6.0% 6.2% 6.4% 6.5% 6.9% 7.0% 7.1% 7.3% 7.5% 7.5% 7.6% 7.6% 7.6% 7.8% 7.9% 8.9% 14.3%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

Liechtenstein SanMarino Albania Montenegro Azerbaijan Bulgaria Armenia NorthMacedonia France Turkey Poland Serbia(Republicof) UK:NorthernIreland Italy Denmark UK:Scotland Ireland UK:EnglandandWales Romania Lithuania Estonia Cyprus Luxembourg Europeanmedian Croatia Greece Slovenia Europeanaverage Sweden Netherlands Switzerland Norway Austria Portugal Moldova Germany Finland Spain(Catalonia) Hungary SlovakRepublic Spain(Total) Spain(StateAdministration) CzechRepublic Iceland Latvia RussianFederation Andorra Monaco

Nationality

Fourteen percent (14%) of the inmates held in Europe are foreigners, but this percentage varies widely across nations. In Eastern European countries, it is usually lower than 5%, while in Central and Western Europe it varies from 2% to 72% in countries with at least one million inhabitants, and from none to 95% in smaller countries.

These percentages are presented in Figure 4.

More than one third of the foreign inmates held in Europe come from the EU member states (see SPACE I, Table 13).

Only a few prison administrations provided data on the resident status of the foreigners held in their prisons.

Among them, the percentage of those who have a legal resident status varies from none to 60% (see SPACE I, Table 13).

Figure 4. Percentage of foreign inmates in the prison population on 31

January 2019 (N=42)

0.0% 1.2% 1.2% 1.4% 1.9% 1.9% 2.0% 2.1% 2.4% 2.9% 3.0% 3.3% 4.6% 5.2% 6.2% 6.7% 8.2% 9.3% 11.1% 12.1% 13.6% 14.4% 15.2% 15.3% 17.9% 20.1% 21.5% 22.9% 23.1% 23.1% 25.3% 28.1% 28.2% 31.1% 33.8% 35.1% 43.6% 44.9% 54.7% 54.9% 58.9% 72.1% 74.4% 75.0% 95.2%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

SanMarino Romania Moldova Poland Albania Lithuania SlovakRepublic Azerbaijan Latvia Serbia(Republicof) Bulgaria Turkey Hungary Armenia RussianFederation NorthMacedonia CzechRepublic UK:NorthernIreland UK:EnglandandWales Croatia Ireland Europeanmedian Portugal Montenegro Finland Slovenia Iceland Europeanaverage France Netherlands Spain(StateAdministration) Spain(Total) Denmark Norway Italy Estonia Cyprus Spain(Catalonia) Austria Greece Andorra Switzerland Luxembourg Liechtenstein Monaco

Legal status

Twenty-two percent (22%) of the inmates held in European penal institutions are not serving a final sentence (see SPACE I, Table 8). Following the terminology of the Council of Europe, this means that 22% of the inmates are detainees placed in remand on custody (see Recommendation Rec (2006) 13). In practice, however, they are often referred to as detainees placed in pre-trial detention, or simply as pre-trial detainees.

The percentage of detainees not serving a final sentence varies broadly across countries, ranging from 2.8% to roughly 48% in countries with at least one million inhabitants, and reaching 83% in smaller countries. These percentages are presented in Figure 5.

Disclaimer: Instead of waiting until the end of the appeal process, some countries consider inmates as sentenced

statutory limits to do so are not included in the total number of detainees not serving a final sentence. This means that the interpretation of the differences observed in Figure 5 is not straightforward and must take into account the comments provided by each country (see SPACE I, Table 8 and its notes).

Figure 5. Percentage of detainees not serving a final sentence in the prison population on 31

January 2019 (N=45)

0.0% 2.8% 8.4% 9.2% 9.3% 9.3% 10.2% 11.3% 13.2% 13.7% 15.1% 15.3% 15.4% 15.6% 15.7% 16.9% 17.1% 17.3% 18.1% 19.1% 20.4% 20.4% 20.5% 21.9% 21.9% 22.4% 22.9% 23.8% 25.9% 25.9% 27.9% 28.1% 29.0% 29.2% 30.4% 31.0% 31.1% 32.8% 35.4% 38.2% 40.7% 41.0% 42.6% 47.7% 48.6% 57.1% 76.2% 83.3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

SanMarino Hungary CzechRepublic RussianFederation Romania Lithuania Poland UK:EnglandandWales Iceland NorthMacedonia Estonia SlovakRepublic Spain(StateAdministration) Serbia(Republicof) Spain(Total) Azerbaijan Portugal Spain(Catalonia) Moldova Bulgaria Ireland Turkey UK:Scotland Germany Europeanmedian Austria Finland Slovenia Norway Europeanaverage Latvia Sweden France Montenegro Cyprus Croatia Greece Italy UK:NorthernIreland Denmark Albania Armenia Netherlands Switzerland Luxembourg Andorra Monaco Liechtenstein

Length of sentence imposed

For those inmates who have been sentenced, Figure 6 presents the distribution of the length of the sentences imposed. It can be seen that they are mainly serving sentences from 1 to less than 3 years (27%), from 5 to less than 10 years (20%), and from 3 to less than 5 years (17%). Only 1.3% are serving life imprisonment, and less than 1% are under security measures (for further details, see SPACE I, Table 11).

Figure 6. Distribution of sentenced prisoners according to the length of the sentence they are serving, in percentages, on 31

January 2019 (N=42)

Type of offence

Figure 7 illustrates the distribution of sentenced prisoners according to the offence for which they were convicted (for further details, see SPACE I, Table 9). It can be seen that 18% of the sentenced prisoners held in European penal institutions have been convicted for drug offences. Prisoners convicted for theft (14%) represent the second largest category, followed by those sentenced for homicide (13%).

If one combines all the prisoners serving sentences for offences involving violence (homicide, assault and battery, rape, other sexual offences, and robbery) in a single category, they represent 40% of the prison population.

Figure 7. Distribution of sentenced prisoners according to the offence for which they were sentenced, in percentages, on 31

January 2019 (N=40)

1.3% 2.0%

4.8%

8.2%

11.4%

16.7%

20.2%

27.4%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Life imprisonment 20years andover

Lessthan 6months

From6 monthstoless than 1year From10toless than20 years

From3 to lessthan 5years From5 to lessthan 10 years

From1 to lessthan 3years

Homicide (including attempts); 13.4%

Assault and battery;

6.9%

Rape; 4.8%

Other types of sexual offences; 4.8%

Robbery; 9.7%

Theft; 14.0%

Economic/ financial offences; 3.2%

Drug offences; 18.1%

Road traffic offences;

2.9%

Other offences; 18.2%

Focus on drug offences

Figure 8 presents the upper half of the distribution of countries according to the percentage of prisoners serving sentences for drug offences. It can be seen that, in several countries, prisoners sentenced for that kind of offences represent more than one fourth of the prison population.

Figure 8. Percentage of sentenced prisoners serving sentences for drug offences on 31

January 2019 (upper half of the distribution only) (N=21)

16.8% 17.7% 18.2% 18.5% 18.6% 18.7% 18.7% 19.5% 20.9% 22.0% 23.0% 23.4% 24.2% 24.3% 27.4% 27.8% 28.0% 28.3% 31.8% 31.8% 34.4% 46.9% 87.5%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Europeanmedian Netherlands

Spain(Total) France

Luxembourg

Spain(StateAdministration) Switzerland

Finland Montenegro

Denmark Turkey

Sweden

Serbia(Republicof) Norway

Estonia Cyprus

RussianFederation Azerbaijan

Albania Italy

Iceland Latvia

Andorra

Prison density and overcrowding

According to the information provided by the prison administrations, only 15 of them had a prison density of more than 100 inmates per 100 places. Among these 15 prison administrations, five had a density that was higher than 100 but inferior to 105; while the other ten were experiencing serious overcrowding, with rates of more than 105 inmates per 100 places. These 15 countries are presented in different colours in Figure 9, which shows the distribution of countries according to their prison density.

It must also be mentioned that the level of occupation of the cells varies widely among the countries that provided the relevant data, ranging from 0.7 to 9.6 inmates per cell (See SPACE I, Table 16). This suggests that some penal institutions who are theoretically not experiencing overcrowding may have in practice overcrowded cells. At the continental level, there are roughly 1.4 inmates per cell in Europe.

Disclaimer: Data on prison capacity is provided by the countries and therefore corresponds to their own estimation of it. By definition, there is overcrowding when there are more inmates than the number of places available in penal institutions. In order to define the number of places available (i.e. the capacity of the penal institutions), countries are asked to use the concept of design capacity, which refers to the number of inmates that a penal institution was intended to house when it was constructed or renewed. However, many countries use the concept of operational capacity, which refers to the number of inmates that a penal institution can actually house while remaining functional. As a consequence, the rates concerning prison capacity and overcrowding do not allow reliable cross-national comparisons.

Figure 9. Prison density (number of inmates per 100 detention places) on 31

January 2019 (N=49)

12.5 22.3 39.4 42.4 50.9 59.8 60.0 69.6 70.9 71.7 73.3 77.5 78.7 79.0 80.0 80.4 81.0 83.7 84.7 85.6 85.8 86.0 87.1 87.1 87.8 88.5 89.5 89.5 93.4 93.4 93.9 93.9 94.6 96.7 97.3 98.1 99.5 102.5 103.4 103.6 103.8 104.3 105.5 105.8 106.8 107.0 113.1 114.5 116.5 118.9 120.6 122.5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130

SanMarino Monaco Andorra Armenia BH:RepublikaSrpska Latvia Liechtenstein Spain(StateAdministration) NorthMacedonia Spain(Total) RussianFederation Estonia Bulgaria UK:NorthernIreland Croatia Georgia Lithuania Iceland Albania Germany Poland Azerbaijan Europeanaverage Montenegro Spain(Catalonia) Norway SlovakRepublic Europeanmedian Luxembourg Sweden Ireland Switzerland Finland UK:EnglandandWales Netherlands Cyprus Portugal CzechRepublic UK:Scotland Denmark Moldova Slovenia Serbia(Republicof) Austria Greece Malta Romania Hungary France Italy Belgium Turkey

Prison staff

At the European level, there were 1.6 inmates per 1 member of prison staff, but this ratio varies across countries, ranging from a maximum of 4.9 to a minimum of 0.1 inmates, as can be seen in Figure 10.

When the ratio is based on the custodial staff only, it increases to 2.6 inmates per custodian. Finally, if the calculation is restricted to the custodial staff dedicated exclusively to custody, it increases to 2.8 inmates per custodian solely dedicated to custody (See SPACE I, Table 21).

Figure 10. Ratio of inmates per one prison staff member on 31

January 2019 (N=44)

0.1 0.3 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.4 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.6 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.2 2.4 2.4 2.5 2.5 2.7 2.8 4.9

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0

SanMarino Monaco Andorra Liechtenstein Sweden Norway Denmark Netherlands UK:NorthernIreland Armenia Iceland Ireland Albania Finland Croatia Latvia Italy Luxembourg Switzerland Spain(Catalonia) Slovenia Romania Europeanmedian UK:EnglandandWales Europeanaverage Cyprus Bulgaria France Germany SlovakRepublic Lithuania UK:Scotland CzechRepublic Portugal Hungary Estonia Spain(Total) Spain(StateAdministration) RussianFederation Montenegro Greece Austria Poland Moldova Serbia(Republicof) NorthMacedonia Turkey

Ratioofinmatesperonestaffmember

3. Flow indicators: Admissions, IALI, exits, turnover ratio, and cost of imprisonment during the year 2018

Admissions into penal institutions

During the year 2018, there were 776,718 admissions into penal institutions in the 41 prison administrations that provided data for this indicator, representing a European median rate of 146 admissions per 100,000 inhabitants (see SPACE I, Table 23). Figure 11 shows the rate of admissions by country. Cyprus, Sweden, and Switzerland use a definition of admissions than do not comply with that of SPACE; therefore, their rates are not comparable to those of the rest of the prison administrations and are presented in striped bars.

Figure 11. Rate of admissions per 100,000 inhabitants during 2018 (N=41)

A comparison of the distribution of the prison administrations in Figure 11 with that in Figure 1 reveals that the relationship between the rates of admissions and the prison population rates is not straightforward. Portugal and Spain, for example, have very low rates of admissions, but high prison population rates; on the contrary, the Netherlands and Denmark have very low prison population rates and high or very high rates of admissions (see Table 1). The key factor in that context is the length of imprisonment, which is presented in the next section.

47.4 54.6 60.7 71.8 72.6 73.6 73.8 75.1 78.3 87.3 88.6 91.2 98.1 100.5 100.7 113.8 114.8 115.5 123.4 135.3 141.8 145.8 145.8 151.9 155.6 160.3 164.2 164.6 178.5 185.7 189.4 197.4 200.2 204.4 222.9 227.9 252.2 300.9 303.6 339.4 404.5 425.6 604.2 776.0

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Portugal Romania

San Marino Azerbaijan

Spain:Catalonia Spain: Total

Spain: StateAdministration Iceland

Italy Sweden NorthMacedonia

Moldova Greece

Finland CzechRepublic

France Germany

Slovenia Austria

Estonia Andorra

Norway Europeanmedian

Albania Luxembourg

SlovakRepublic Liechtenstein

Ireland Netherlands Europeanaverage

Hungary Denmark

Croatia Poland

UK: England andWales UK: Northern Ireland

Bulgaria Lithuania

Serbia Monaco

UK: Scotland Montenegro

Switzerland Cyprus

Rateofadmissionsper100,000inhabitants