Marawi City Jail, the Philippines.
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. Below, find five key findings.
After a decrease during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people held in prisons worldwide has started to rise again, reaching 11.5 million people in 2022.
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.
In 2022, around 3.5 million prisoners, or roughly 30 per cent of the global prison population, were held in pre-trial detention worldwide.
However, this masks wide regional disparities. The highest proportion of unsentenced prisoners among the overall prison population is reported in Africa and Oceania (both at 36 per cent in 2022), and the lowest in Europe (18 per cent). This being said, significant differences remain at sub-regional level. The situation is particularly concerning in Southern Asia, for example, where 63 per cent of detainees are held unsentenced.
Pretrial detention should be limited to instances where there is 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 is 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.
Overcrowding is a pressing concern in many prisons. In 60 per cent of the countries worldwide with available data, prisons operate 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. Prisons in Africa and the Americas are particularly affected, where more than three-quarters of countries with available data report overcrowded prison systems.
Prison overcrowding continues to constitute an acute human rights, health and security crisis, and stands out as the greatest contributor to violations of international minimum prison standards.
In almost all countries reporting, the rate of intentional homicide is higher among prisoners than in the general population. 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 organizations 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.
Prisoner deaths in custody are largely preventable, and often reflect challenges that States face in exercising their heightened duty of care and obligation to protect prisoners’ rights to health and to safety and integrity of the person.
Four out of five prison administrations report having developed a dedicated prisoner rehabilitation strategy, and almost half of those with a rehabilitation strategy report the engagement of prisoners as stakeholders during planning, according to a new UNODC survey on prison rehabilitation and rehabilitative prison environments. Evidence about the actual scope of implementation of these strategies was not consistently available.
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.
The way we treat prisoners is key in making our communities safer and protecting human rights for all. UNODC works with over 50 Member States worldwide to advance non-custodial measures, improve prison management and conditions, and support social reintegration. Find out more.
