Albania has one of the highest incarceration rates out of Council of Europe Member States according to the Annual Penal Statistics for 2020 (SPACE I) report, seen by Exit.
The incarceration rate per 100,00 is 178, putting it at number 10. Turkey had the highest rate with 357, followed by Russia (356), Georgia (264), Lithuania (220) and Azerbaijan (209). Regionally, it was on a par with Montenegro and has higher rates than all its neighbors.
The lowest incarceration rates were found in Iceland (45), Finland (50), and the Netherlands (59). Bosnia and Herzegovina had a very low rate with just 65 incarcerations per 100,000 citizens.
In terms of the demographics of Albania’s prison population, it had one of the lowest percentages of foreign inmates with just 2.3%. The highest rate was Luxembourg with 73.9% followed by Switzerland (69.6%) and Greece (57.8%)
Albania had the second-highest number of pre-trial detainees accounting for 45.2% of the population. Armenia was first with 45.8% and Czechia had the lowest amount with just 8.5%. It also had the second-highest number of inmates over 65 years old, with 4.2% of the population. Italy was first with 8. 7% and Albania was followed by the UK with 3.7%.
In terms of offences committed, more than a quarter of Albanian inmates were incarcerated due to drug-related offenses. They were typically imprisoned for 15.7 years. Almost 30% of prisoners in the country were imprisoned for murder or attempted murder. Some 6.3% are serving life sentences.
