CoE: Georgia Second in Europe by Incarceration Rate

Georgia is the second among countries with particularly high incarceration rates, according to the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics for 2018 (SPACE). 

The list of countries with particularly high incarceration rate looks as follows: Russia (418.3 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants), Georgia (252.2), Azerbaijan (235), Lithuania (234.9), Republic of Moldova (215.2), Czech Republic (208.8), Latvia (194.6), Poland (194.4) and Estonia (191.4). Not taking into account countries with less than 300,000 inhabitants, the lowest incarceration rates were found in Iceland (46.8), Finland (51.1), Netherlands (54.4), Sweden (56.5), Denmark (63.2), Slovenia (61.1) and Norway (65.4).

The report reads that between 2008 and 2018, incarceration rates grew considerably in countries, such as San Marino (186.6%), North Macedonia (33.6), Portugal (27.5), Serbia (19.5), Slovak Republic (19.1).  Georgia showed the most significant drop in incarceration rate (-43.3%), followed by Latvia (-34.8%), Russia (-32.4%), Cyprus (-29.9%), Estonia (-29.9%) and Croatia (-29.9%).

In addition to this, CoE says prison administrations with the highest proportion of foreign inmates were Switzerland (71.4%), Austria (54.7%), Greece (52.7%), Catalonia (Spain)(43.1%), Cyprus (39.7%), Germany (38.1%), Italy (34%) and Norway (32.1%).

“The prison administrations where the proportion of foreign prisoners increased the most with regard to the year before were Slovenia (56%, from 9% to 14%), Croatia (44%, from 6.1% to 8.9%), Georgia (35%, from 3.5% to 4.7%) and Sweden (34%, from 21.3% to 28.5%),” the statistics read.

CoE report also reads that the overall imprisonment rate in Europe fell by 6.6% between 2016 and 2018 - from 109.7 to 102.5 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants.

Moreover, overall in Europe pre-trial detainees represented 22.4% of the total prison population.

The prison administrations with the highest proportions of pre-trial detainees were the Netherlands (41.8%), Denmark (40.5%), Switzerland (39.3%), Armenia (36.7%), Italy (34.5%), Greece (32.4%), Northern Ireland (UK)(32%) and France (29.5%), excluding countries with less than 300,000 inhabitants.

The prison administrations with the lowest proportions of pre-trial detainees were Czech Republic (8.2%), North Macedonia (8.4%), Romania (8.6%), Lithuania (9.3%), Poland (9.8%), Republika Srpska (11.2%), England and Wales (UK) (11.4%), Bulgaria (12.5%), Spain (Catalonia) (14.3%), Spain (State administration) (14.4%) and Georgia (14.8%).

Georgia was also listed among the states with the lowest number of female inmates. The list looks as follows: BiH: Republika Srpska (2.2%), North Macedonia (2.2%), Montenegro (2.5%), Azerbaijan (2.9%) and Georgia (2.9%); the European median was 5.0%.

The list of top 5 countries in terms of the lowest mortality rates of prisoners includes Georgia too: Iceland (0 deaths), Sweden (7.0), Finland (7.1), Georgia (10.6) and the Czech Republic (10.8).

The statistics read that the total capacity of penal institutions in Georgia is 12,493 places, remaining roughly the same in comparison to 2016. 

CoE says prison density per 100 places is 75.3, significantly lower than the European median (91.4) and roughly the same as in 2016.

By Thea Morrison