Russia has overtaken all of Europe in the number of prisoners in prisons | 04/08/21

Russia has managed to maintain its leading position in Europe in terms of the number of prisoners in prisons.

According to Open Media, experts from the University of Lausanne came to this conclusion in a report prepared for the Council of Europe.

According to the latest official data, 519.6 thousand people are behind bars and barbed wire in Russia. In terms of the relative number of prisoners – 356 people per 100 thousand of the population – the Russian Federation is second only to Turkey, where 357 citizens out of every 100 thousand are “imprisoned”.

The Russian indicator is more than twice the European average (102.5 prisoners per 100 thousand of the population) and is high even in terms of the measures of the nearest neighbors. For comparison: in Georgia – 252 prisoners per 100 thousand inhabitants, in Azerbaijan – 235.

The smallest prison population is in Iceland (45 prisoners per 100 thousand inhabitants), Finland (50 per 100 thousand), the Netherlands and Norway (59 per 100 thousand).




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The number of prisoners in Russia is decreasing: for example, in 2010 there were 575 prisoners per 100 thousand inhabitants. Perhaps that is why there are many free places in Russian prisons: only 69% of the estimated capacity of penitentiary institutions is occupied.

According to this indicator, Russians are significantly ahead of the European average (on average in Europe there were 90.3 prisoners for every 100 places), and in 14 countries we can talk about serious overcrowding of prisons: in Turkey there are 127 prisoners per 100 available places, in Italy – 120. in Belgium – 117. The Russian authorities did not provide data on the number of jailers.

In terms of mortality in prisons, Russia also ranks first: in 2019 and January 2010, 2,420 people died.

On the other hand, in terms of spending on prisoners, Russia is in last place.

Despite the largest prison budget in Europe (4.1 billion euros), the cost per prisoner is only 2.8 euros per day.

In Bulgaria, the maintenance of one prisoner costs 5.7 euros per day, in Azerbaijan – 9 euros. In second place in terms of total spending on prisoners is Great Britain – 3.9 billion euros at a cost of 136 euros per person per day and Germany – 3.5 billion euros at a cost of one day of imprisonment at 149 euros.