The Council of Europe’s annual penal statistics for 2023 will be published tomorrow morning. The report – which is compiled by the University of Lausanne – includes data from 48 prison administrations across Europe on issues including total prison populations, imprisonment rates and levels of overcrowding as well as the profile of prison populations (including by age, gender and nationality) and rates of suicide and escape.
Some potentially interesting points concerning Türkiye are as follows:
- The countries with the highest total number of inmates on 31 January 2023 were Türkiye (348,265), the UK (90,964 in total across 3 prison administrations), France (72,294), Poland (71,228), Germany (56,294) and Italy (56,127).
- The prison administrations with the highest prison population rates (inmates per 100,000 inhabitants) on 31 January 2023 were Türkiye (408), Georgia (256), Azerbaijan (244), Moldova (242), Hungary (211), Poland (194), Slovakia (183) and Albania (179)
- The prison administrations with the highest ratio of inmates per staff member on 31 January 2023 were Türkiye (4.5), North Macedonia (2.7), Georgia (2.7), Serbia (2.6), Cyprus (2.6), Poland (2.5), Moldova (2.4), Greece (2.4), Spain (total) (2.2) and Hungary (2.2) [Key Findings, Table 3]
- In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, the prison administrations with the highest percentage change in population rates from 2022 to 2023 were Moldova (52%), North Macedonia (26%), Cyprus (25%), Türkiye (15%), Azerbaijan (13%), Ireland (12%), Montenegro (11%) and Armenia (11%) [Graphs, Figure 15]
- In countries with over 500,000 inhabitants, the prison administrations with the highest percentage change in population rates from 2005 to 2023 were Türkiye (439%), Cyprus (76%), Albania (63%), Serbia (55%), Malta (45%), North Macedonia (36%), Croatia (35%) and Hungary (30%) [Graphs, Figure 17]
