Prisons and Prisoners in Europe 2022: Key Findings of the SPACE I survey

By Marcelo F. Aebi, Edoardo Cocco & Lorena Molnar

  This report summarises key findings from the 2022 Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations, better known as SPACE I, an acronym derived from its French name, Statistiques Pénales Annuelles du Conseil de l’Europe. A total of 48 out of the 51 prison administrations (PAs) across the 46 Council of Europe member states responded to the 2022 SPACE I questionnaire, thus contributing to this year’s survey. This signifies a 94% participation rate. The sole administrations that refrained from replying were those of San Marino and two of the three administrations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically the State PA and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina PA. Not all administrations responded to every question and, as far as the longitudinal analyses in this report are concerned, not all administrations have responded every year to the SPACE I questionnaire. Consequently, when interpreting the Figures of this report or comparing them with those of previous years, readers must consider the total number (N) of PAs included in each Figure and indicated in its title0F 1 . For example, the European average for the same indicator will vary from one Figure to another when the number of PAs included is not the same. Additionally, the Russian Federation's exclusion from the Council of Europe on 16 March 2022 results in its absence from the SPACE data collection from this survey onwards, impacting trend analyses. As a reminder, on 31 January 2021—the reference date for stock figures in the preceding SPACE I report—Europe housed 1,414,172 inmates, one third of which (478,714 inmates, or 34% of the total) were accommodated in Russian penal institutions. Furthermore, approximately 14% of the total budget expended by European PAs during the preceding year was accounted for by Russia. Thus, to maintain consistency in trend analyses, we also excluded the Russian Federation from the longitudinal analyses presented herein, recalculating all European average and median rates taken from prior reports. The Figures featured in this report use ratios, percentages, and rates per 100,000 inhabitants, rather than relying solely on absolute numbers. These metrics are influenced not only by fluctuations in inmate counts, but also by natural population changes. Researchers from the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital have summarised the European population trends from 2000 to 2020 as follows: “Europe remains divided by long-term population trends. This division mostly follows the past geopolitical cleavage between Europe’s East and West. Countries in the comparatively rich regions —the West, South, and North— continue to experience rising population, due to a combination of minor natural population increase and higher level of immigration than emigration. In contrast, almost all countries in Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern Europe saw substantial population declines, due to a combined effect of natural population decrease and emigration.”1F 2 Thus, while a PA's inmate count may remain constant over time, its incarceration rate will fluctuate based on the country's natural population changes. Similarly, prison data for Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine exclude territories that are not under government control; however, their general population figures, which are used as a proxy for the population at risk of incarceration when calculating rates per 100,000 inhabitants, may not accurately account for this exclusion. Last year's SPACE I report (2021) was notably affected by the global movement restrictions imposed to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020, particularly the lockdowns. These limitations altered the structure of opportunities to commit crimes, resulting in a decline in most offline offences2F 3 and a surge in certain types of online offences3F 4 ; additionally, they disrupted the functioning of prosecution services and courts. These factors led to a reduction of the number of individuals entering penal institutions (flow of admissions). Coupled  with the preventive measure of inmate release in some countries—whether temporary or permanent—this significantly reduced the number of inmates (stock) in detention during 20204F 5 , resulting in lower prison populations on 31 January 2021 compared to one year earlier5F 6 . However, with the easing of movement restrictions in 2021, the structure of opportunities was largely restored, and the criminal justice system enabled to operate in a relatively normal way. As evident in this report, this resulted in an overall increase in the flow of admissions during 2021 and the number of inmates held in penal institutions as of 31 January 2022. Rates and percentages are presented as rounded numbers unless they fall below 10. A few exceptions to that rule were introduced when we considered that the addition or subtraction of decimals could help the comprehension of the indicator under study. The original data, with one decimal point, can be consulted in Tables 3 and 4 of Section 7. In our analysis, we employ the arithmetic mean (average) and the median as indicators of the central tendencies observed in Europe. Our focus is primarily on countries with populations exceeding 1,000,000 when highlighting significant deviations from these indicators. In that perspective, we have distinguished the description of the data from their plausible interpretations by putting the latter in bullet points [•]. We did the same for some specific methodological issues that can help readers when interpreting the data. For a more comprehensive explanation, please refer to the Methodology section at the end of this report    

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