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Global prison population and trends. A focus on rehabilitation

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In the framework of Nelson Mandela International Day, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released the report “Global prison population and trends. A focus on rehabilitation” from the Data Matters series.

This report reveals major challenges faced by prison systems around the world that threaten the rights to health, security and integrity of deprived persons, among which are:

  1. Increasing population deprived of liberty. Although there was a decrease in the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2012 to 2022, it increased by 5.5%, from 10.9 million to 11.5 million persons deprived of liberty. According to 2022 estimates, the Americas is the region with the second highest number of persons deprived of liberty, where North America and South America are the sub-regions with the highest number of persons deprived of liberty with 1.8 and 1.3 million respectively.
  2. Almost one third of the population deprived of liberty is in pretrial detention. Globally, 3.5 million people are in pretrial detention, i.e., 8just over 30% are without a sentence. Although globally the proportion of men (31%) and women (30%) without a sentence is similar, Oceania and Africa have a proportion of women without a sentence of over 40%, while in the Americas the proportion of women without a sentence is 35%.
  3. Prisons are overcrowded. In 60% of the countries in the world (with available data), prisons operate at 100% of their capacity or are overcrowded, while 1 in 5 countries operate at more than 150% of their capacity. In Africa and the Americas, 70% of countries (with available data) report prison overcrowding, as they operate above 100% of their capacity.
  4. Deaths in prison can be prevented; 1 out of every 10 deaths inside prisons is suicide. According to available data, globally there were 34.2 deaths by suicide of persons deprived of liberty per 100,000, which is higher than the suicide rate among the general population, which is 9.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, the intentional homicide rate inside prisons is 12.2 per 100,000 persons deprived of liberty, while among the general population the rate is 5.8 intentional homicide deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. In other words, in most of the countries with available data, the rate of intentional homicide is higher inside prisons than among the general population, and the Americas is the region with the highest rate of intentional homicide deaths inside prisons, with 18.3 victims per 100,000 persons deprived of liberty.
  5. Prison systems recognize the importance of rehabilitation and social reintegration in prisons. According to information reported by prison administrations, 4 out of 5 administrations have developed a specific strategy for the rehabilitation and reintegration of persons deprived of liberty, half of which have incorporated the participation of inmates in their planning. However, there is no evidence on the extent to which these strategies have been implemented.

All these challenges call for countries to redouble their efforts in the design and implementation of evidence-based public policies to prevent criminal behavior, especially among young people, improve the conditions of detention of persons deprived of liberty, strengthen social reintegration strategies, and guarantee access to justice.