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Council of Europe annual penal statistics: SPACE I – prison populations: survey 2015.

Year: 2016
Type: report
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Key points of SPACE I 20141.The participation rate in the 2015 SPACE I Survey was 96%: 50 out of the 52 Prison Administrations of the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe answered the questionnaire.2. The median European Prison Population Rate [PPR] was 124.0 inmates per 100 000 inhabitants.There was noted an increase of +4% compared to 2012 (125.6 inmates per 100 000 inhabitants).As median calculated values are less sensitive to the extreme figures (i.e.very low prison population rates in small countries with less than 1mln inhabitants), it is preferable to use these values as a more reliable alternative to the average figures.3. On 1 st September 2014, there were 1 600 324 inmates held in penal institutions across Europe.On the same date in 2013, there were 1 530 222 inmates (this total does not include Ukrainian figures which were missing for 2013) and, in 2012 there were 1 737 061 inmates.4. On average, on 1 st September 2014, European prisons were at the top of their capacity, holding 91 inmates per 100 places (median values being higher: 93).In particular, 27.5% of the Prison Administrations were experiencing overcrowding.Since 2009, the European prison density remains close to full.5. The median age of the European prison population was 34 years, which is the same as in 2013 and 2012.6.The median proportion of female inmates was 5.0% of the total prison population.Compared to the same indicator in 2013 (4.7%), there is no significant difference.22% of female inmates were pre-trial detainees.7. The median proportion of foreign inmates was 13.3% of the total prison population.The average value being of 21.7%.Yet, there are very big differences between countries, from 0.7% in Poland to 96.4% in Monaco.8. Length of custodial sentences:a.The median proportion of sentenced prisoners who were serving sentences shorter than one year was 15.2%, which is higher compared to 2012 (13.4%) and 2011 (13.9%).b.The most common category of lengths of sentences was the one lasting from one to less than three years (the median percentage of such inmates was 23.8%).c. Around 12% of inmates were serving very long sentences of 10 years and over.This proportion remained close to the one of 2013 (11%) and 2012 (10%).9. Inmates were sentenced mainly for the following types of criminal offences: drug offences (16.5%), theft (14.0%), robbery (13.1%), and homicide (12.3%).10.The average length of imprisonment in 2013 was 9 months, which is higher than in the past three years (about 8 months respectively).The duration of the pre-trail detention remained the same as in 2012 and 2011 (about 4 months).11.The median mortality rate in 2013 was 28 deaths per 10 000 inmates, the same as in 2012.There is a visible increase compared to 2011 when this indicator was at 26 deaths per 10,000 inmates.12. The average amount spent per day and per inmate in 2013 was 99 Euros.It is 2 Euros more than in 2012 (97 Euros).On the other hand, the median amount is 45 Euros, 3 Euros more than in 2012 (42 Euros).The amounts vary widely across Europe: from 3 to 685 Euros per day and per inmate.The 45 Prison Administrations that provided data on this item had spent more than 27 milliards Euros in 2013 for the penitentiary needs.13.There were about 3 inmates per one custodian in 2014.This ratio remained the same as in 2013.Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics 3 Strasbourg, 15 December 2015, pc-cp\space\documents\pc-cp (2015) 7 PC-CP (2015) 7comparisons of prison mortality (see Table 13 & 13.2) and, more specifically, of suicides occurred in penal institutions (see Table 13.1). SPACE WEBSITEAside from the data presented in this report, the Website of the SPACE project provides some other useful information on custodial and non-custodial activities across Europe (e.g.recidivism studies, useful links and addresses in regard with the Prison and Probation administrations).At the moment of publication of this report, on the SPACE Website are presented the most recent data on the number of inmates, the prison density and the prison population rates available on 1 st January 2015.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2617440040
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Cited by: 54
Related to: 10