More prisoners in 2019

Almost all are men

In 2019, the majority of the prison population (58 percent) were aged between 25 and 45 years; young adults (18 to 24 years) constituted 15 percent, while 26 percent were aged between 45 and 65 years. The age distribution has remained almost the same since 2016. Last year the share of 25 to 44-year-old detainees fell slightly (by 1.5 percent) while the share of older detainees (45 years and over) was slightly higher (1.9 percent). 95 percent of the offenders were male.

Steep decline in replacement detention

44 percent of the prison population comprised people in pre-trial detention, pending their trial in court. 39 procent were serving a court-imposed custodial sentence; the breakdown by duration of sentence has hardly changed over the past few years.

The share of persons in replacement detention or subject to coercive measures – who are usually detained for a short period of time – has fallen sharply over the past few years: from 10 percent in 2014 to 5 percent in 2019. On the other hand, the share of detainees in establishments for systematic offenders – i.e. highly active repeat offenders, detained for 1 to 2 years – rose from 4 percent in 2014 to 8 percent in 2019.