Nearly half of European jails overcrowded: Council of Europe

A Council of Europe report has warned that nearly half of all European countries experience prison overcrowdings.

The report, published on Friday, revealed that 20 of 47 council’s member states have more inmates than places available, where in some penitentiaries there are 150 prisoners for 100 places.

In the report, titled Council of Europe’s 2011 Penal Statistics survey, it said most crowded prisons were found in Serbia (157.6 inmates per 100 places), Greece (151.7) and Italy (147).

France and Belgium did not fall far behind with 113.4 and 127.2 prisoner for 100 places, respectively.

Authors, Marcelo F. Aebi and Natalia Delgrande at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, warned that each European country set different criteria for prisoner capacity, adding comparisons could be misleading.

According to the study, the council’s member states counted a total of 1.86 million people are confined in 2011, or 154 inmates for 100,000 inhabitants.

In addition, the report showed that France has a high suicide rate among its prison population.

It registered 95 suicides in 2010, or 15.5 suicides for 10,000 prisoners against an average of 6.7 for the council’s member states.