Georgia 3rd among countries with highest incarceration rates in Europe
Based on the recent CoE report, the overall European imprisonment rate has fallen slightly in 2020. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge archive
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The Council of Europe’s new annual prison statistics report released earlier today says that Georgia is the third among the countries with the highest incarceration rates in Europe.
With its 264 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants Georgia comes after Turkey (357) and Russia (356) with the highest incarceration rate in January 2020, the Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations for 2020 (SPACE) says.
Europe’s imprisonment rate continues to fall.
— Council of Europe (@coe) April 8, 2021
The Council of Europe’s annual penal statistics for 2020 are now online, including extensive data from 51 prison administrations across Europe.
Incarceration rates / countries ⬇️https://t.co/3GGakLyPF9#EuropeanPrisons2020 pic.twitter.com/dryjsL5gi6
Georgia was the third country in Europe with the highest incarceration rate last year as well.
Based on the SPACE report, the percentage of prisoners serving sentences for drug offences on January 31, 2020 stands at 26 in Georgia.
Below are some of other key findings:
- percentage of inmates aged 50 or over -15%
- percentage of female inmates - 40%
- percentage of foreign inmates - 7.5%
- percentage of detainees not serving a final sentence - 19%
CoE has meanwhile announced that the overall European imprisonment rate 'fell again slightly' in 2020, consolidating a trend that started in 2013.
On January 31, 2020, there were 1,528,343 inmates in 51 prison administrations (out of 52) of the CoE member states, which corresponds to a European prison population rate of 103.2 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants.
The statistics of 2008 read 445 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants in Georgia, while the figure was 252 per 100,000 in 2018. CoE says that the number of inmates in the Georgian prisons was increasing until 2012 [under the United National Movement], with 516 inmates per 1000,000 in 2012.
The latest Council of Europe survey for mortality rates amongst inmates ranks Georgia as the fifth lowest.
The Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee published its annual report today in which one of the key themes was remand (pre-trial) detention.
Georgia’s prison population rate has decreased more than any other country in Europe, a new report on Europe’s prison system reveals.
Georgia’s population has slightly increased, reaching 3,728,600 people as of January 1, 2021, says the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat). Year-on-year (y/y) Georgia’s population increased by 0.3%.
Georgia has debuted at Kearney’s Global Services Location Index (GSLI) 2021 and took 19th place among the top-ranked countries to source tech services, announces the export promotion agency Enterprise Georgia.
Georgia had remarkably high prison and probation rates in 2020, which could be an indicator that community sanctions and measures are being used not as alternatives to imprisonment but as supplementary sanctions, reads the 2020 SPACE II annual survey carried out by the University of Lausanne for the Council of Europe.
Two inmates have died in a fire in Rustavi Prison No.17 yesterday, the Georgian Justice Ministry confirmed earlier today. The fire broke out at around 14:00 yesterday allegedly in the prison cafeteria. Six fire brigades with 11 fire engines were trying to extinguish the fire. It has not been reported so far what caused the death of the inmates - thermal burns of smoke.
The European Probation Confederation (CEP) has published an article about PROBBOX, an innovative service launched by the Ministry of Justice of Georgia in six cities in December, calling the initiative a “large-scale reform” of the probation system in the country.