The number of people held in prisons worldwide has reached 11.5 million people in 2022, after a decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Incarceration rates vary between regions, with 2022 estimates indicating that people in the Americas are four times more likely to be in prison than those living in Africa.
To mark the occasion of Nelson Mandela International Day, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its first Prison Matters brief, bringing together the latest estimates on the global prison population and trends, with new data on rehabilitation efforts in prisons.
It focuses on global prison population and trends – an emphasis on rehabilitation.
The brief said in 2022, around 3.5 million prisoners, or roughly 30 per cent of the global prison population, were held in pre-trial detention worldwide, meaning a third of the global prison population remained in pre-trial detention.
This marks wide regional disparities with the highest proportion of unsentenced prisoners among the overall prison population reported in Africa and Oceania (both at 36 per cent in 2022), and the lowest in Europe (18 per cent).
Significant differences remain at sub-regional level, where the situation is particularly concerning in Southern Asia, for example, where 63 per cent of detainees were held unsentenced.
It said pre-trial detention should be limited to instances where there was an established risk that an alleged offender may abscond, commit a further criminal offence or interfere with the course of justice, yet its use and duration in many countries was excessive.
“A disproportionate resort to pre-trial detention brings significant costs to the state, communities and families, and the individuals themselves, often impairing their ability to mount a proper legal defence and access legal counsel,” the brief said.
It said overcrowding was a pressing concern in many prisons and that for 60 per cent of the countries worldwide with available data, prisons operated at or over 100 per cent of their official capacity.
Alarmingly, one in five countries globally is operating at over 150 per cent of their intended national capacity.
It said prisons in Africa and the Americas were particularly affected, where more than three-quarters of countries with available data report overcrowded prison systems.
It said prison overcrowding continued to constitute an acute human rights, health and security crisis, and stood out as the greatest contributor to violations of international minimum prison standards. The brief said in almost all countries reporting, the rate of intentional homicide was higher among prisoners than in the general population.
It said countries with data in the Americas reported a much higher rate of deaths by intentional homicide (18.3 victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 prisoners) than in other regions, reflecting the impact of prison-based criminal organisations in some countries.
In 2022, 34.2 prisoners out of 100,000 prisoners committed suicide, much higher than the crude suicide rate of 9.2 deaths per 100,000 in the general population in 2019.
It said prisoner deaths in custody were largely preventable and often reflected challenges that States faced in exercising their heightened duty of care and obligation to protect prisoners’ rights to health and to safety and integrity of the person.
The brief said four out of five prison administrations reported having developed a dedicated prisoner rehabilitation strategy, and almost half of those with a rehabilitation strategy reported the engagement of prisoners as stakeholders during planning, according to a new UNODC survey on prison rehabilitation and rehabilitative prison environments.
A key aspect of prison management is to foster the rehabilitation and social reintegration prospects of prisoners.
Efforts aimed at advancing more rehabilitative prison environments, including through respective programmes and services, are key from the very start of a prison sentence throughout the period of incarceration and up to the preparation for release from custody.
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