Azerbaijan among European countries with a high number of prisoners

Baku/06.04.22/Turan: The Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the reduction in the number of prisoners in Europe from January 2020 to January 2021, the message of the press service of the Council of Europe in connection with the annual statistics of the penitentiary situation in the prisons of the participating countries.

Key factors in the reduction in the number of prisoners have been a decrease in crime due to movement restrictions during the pandemic, the slowdown of the judicial system and the release of prisoners in order to prevent or reduce the spread of coronavirus.

For 31 January 2021, there were 1,414,172 prisoners held in the 49 member states of the Council of Europe. This corresponds to the European level - 102 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants.

Over the past year, this indicator has decreased from 104.3 to 101.9 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants (-2.3%).

Azerbaijan was among the countries with the highest level of prisoners with 216 prisoners per 100,000 people and ranked fourth behind the Russian Federation (328), Turkey (325) and Georgia (232).

At the same time, in Azerbaijan, the total number of prisoners increased by 3.3% compared to 2020, amounting to 21,012.

In terms of prison density, Azerbaijan's figures were 85.5 prisoners per 100 available places, which is about the same as the European average of 84.5.

Across Europe, 4.7% of prisoners were women. In Azerbaijan, this figure is 2.7%, which is significantly lower than the European average.

In Europe as a whole, 15.3% of prisoners were foreigners. In Azerbaijan, they are 2.2% of the total, which is one of the lowest rates in Europe.

The suicide rate in European prisons in 2020 was 5.7 per 10,000 prisoners. In Azerbaijan - 1.8.

The average cost per prisoner per day in Europe in 2020 was 77 euros. In Azerbaijan, this figure is 8.08 euros. The total budget of the penitentiary system in Azerbaijan in 2020 amounted to 63,780,807 euros.—06B-