It is estimated there are more than 11.5 million people in prison worldwide on any given day, according to World Prison Brief’s latest global data. The figure includes estimates for several countries where data is incomplete or not available. The United States of America (US) remains an outlier with the largest absolute number of people in prison (1.84 million) and the highest prison population rate at 629 per 100,000 people. The US is followed by China (1.69 million, with unknown numbers in pre-trial and other forms of detention), Brazil (811,000), India (478,000) and Russia (471,000).
There are approximately 120 countries with occupancy rates exceeding prison system capacity. Extremely high prison overcrowding rates are found in Africa, including in the Republic of Congo, which has over 1,300 people housed in two main prisons with overcrowding levels of over 600%. In Haiti, occupancy levels of 401% are affecting some 11,500 people, with deplorable, sometimes fatal conditions which have been condemned by the United Nations (UN). Uganda’s prison system is dealing with an occupancy level of 374% with a prison population of 74,900 as of March 2023. Even where whole systems are not overcrowded (or are less overcrowded), individual facilities may be, and this is often the case in pre-trial detention facilities. For instance, in March 2023, France reported an overall occupancy level of 119%, but six pre-trial detention centres reached a density of over 200%.
More than three million people – about a third of the global prison population – are held in pre-trial detention with many being detained for months or even years before trial.
The excessive use of pre-trial detention remains one of the biggest drivers of prison overcrowding. More than three million people – about a third of the global prison population – are held in pre-trial detention with many being detained for months or even years before trial. Rates of pre-trial detention are an indicator of the rule of law and equal access to justice for all under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; however, commitments to reduce pre-trial detention are not having any noticeable effect.
Over 50 countries detain more people pre-trial than post-conviction. For example, 82% of the prison population in Haiti are pre-trial. In India and Nigeria around 70% of prison populations are pre-trial, totalling just under half a million people in India. Furthermore, data show how higher numbers of women proportionally end up in pre-trial detention. For example, in Victoria, Australia, the percentage of women in pre-trial detention rose to 54% of the female prison population in 2021, compared to 22% in 2011.
Extreme overcrowding levels in parts of Asia are largely due to punitive drug policies coupled with excessive use of pre-trial detention.
In the Philippines, 126,590 people are in jails that hold mostly pre-trial detainees (as of April 2023) and 50,686 in the country’s 8 prisons (as of February 2023), with congestion rates of 375% and 314%, respectively. In Cambodia, a similar result has been seen, where the prison population has almost doubled since the start of its anti-drug campaign, rising from 21,900 at the end of 2016 to about 39,000 in March 2022. Overcrowding rates now sit at around 350%, with more than 54% of people held on drug-related charges and around a third of the prison population in pre-trial detention.
Several efforts have been taken at regional and national levels to address the misuse of pre-trial detention as a default measure. In April 2023, the Inter American Court of Human Rights ruled on a case involving two men who had spent almost 20 years in prison without a sentence. The Court ordered Mexico to modify mandatory pretrial detention on the basis it violated human rights obligations. In Europe, a new recommendation was adopted in December 2022 by the European Commission which reiterated that pre-trial detention should not be used as a preventive measure, but as a measure of last resort. It called for introducing periodic reviews where its use needs to be justified, along with other minimum standards to protect the accused person’s procedural rights. In March 2021, the Constitutional Court in Hungary declared unconstitutional a law that allowed unlimited pre-trial detention pending a first-instance judgment for offences punishable by a life sentence. In December 2022, the Delhi High Court in India stated that, when speedy trials are not possible, detainees cannot be held in pre-trial custody for an indefinite period.
While the male prison population increased by around 22% from 2000 to 2022, the number of women and girls in prisons has increased by nearly 60% in the same period, now totalling more than 740,000.
Women and girls constitute only 6.9% of the global prison population, although their numbers in prison continue to increase at a faster rate than for men. While the male prison population increased by around 22% from 2000 to 2022, the number of women and girls in prisons has increased by nearly 60% in the same period, now totalling more than 740,000. Sharp increases of female prison populations in the past two decades were recorded in El Salvador (from 371 to 2,710), Guatemala (433 to 2,805), Brazil (10,112 to 42,694), Cambodia (288 to 2,571) and Indonesia (1,807 to 13,709). The main driver of these rises are drug policies which continue to disproportionately impact women (see Drug policies).
Research confirms that poverty is a root cause of women’s imprisonment with many being convicted of minor, petty crimes driven by economic necessity. For example, in the US the Sentencing Project found that women in state prisons are more likely than men to be imprisoned for a drug or property offence. It is also well-established that those who cannot afford a lawyer or bail are more likely to end up in pre[1]trial detention or be convicted. For example, in Mexico, a study with women held in a prison in Ecatepec found that around 10% were charged for minor offences, and their detention was not because they posed a risk to society, but because they were unable to cover fines, bail, or reparation costs.
As assessed in Global Prison Trends 2022, there is further evidence that the widespread use of measures to reduce prison populations during the COVID-19 pandemic are being discontinued. For instance, in Thailand, several early release measures adopted in 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were discontinued in 2022. General measures for early releases are still in place, but in 2022 the prison administration announced that stricter criteria would be applied for royal amnesties, such as having served one-third of the sentence or a minimum of eight years in prison, whichever is more favourable. However, there are also examples of countries where emergency COVID-19 response measures will be adopted for longer term use. In Belgium, an early release measure brought in during the pandemic was extended in August 2022, permitting release of eligible people six months before the end of their sentence.
