World Prison Population: Facts, Trends and Solutions

• NCJ Number: 194341
• Author(s): Brian Tkachuk; Roy Walmsley
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 25 pages
• Corporate Author: United Nations European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI)
• Sale Source: United Nations European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI)
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Conference Material
• Language: English
• Country: Finland
• Note: HEUNI Paper No. 15; downloaded on March 25, 2002.

Annotation

This paper presents a brief overview of presentations and an outline of the World Prison Population: Facts, Trends, and Solutions workshop held in 2001 that focused on prison overcrowding and future worldwide alternatives and solutions.

Abstract

In 2001, the United Nations Program Network Institutes in conjunction with the United Nations Commission held a technical assistance workshop on World Prison Populations: Facts, Trends, and Solutions. The agenda for the workshop was to address the issue of prison overcrowding and the financial and inherent human rights problems that result from this with a look into potential worldwide alternatives and solutions. This paper provides highlights from workshop presenters, as well as an outline of the workshop and a world overview of prison crowding presented by the keynote speaker Roy Walmsley, consultant to the European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control. Individual workshop presenters offered interpretations of prison overcrowding from various regional perspectives that included: (1) data on prison populations, incarceration rates and prison overcrowding for 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean; (2) prison overcrowding in Asia; (3) prison conditions in Africa; (4) activities of a project aimed at strengthening the legislative and institutional capacities of Lebanon’s juvenile justice system; (4) sentencing and corrections in the United States in the 21st Century; (5) the establishment and creation of a drug free area in Austrian prisons; (6) organized crime from the perspective of prisons; and (7) prison management and managing prisons in overcrowded situations without increased resources. Keynote speaker, Roy Walmsley’s paper introduced key aspects of the workshop and discussions focused on: (1) an overview of the world prison population; (2) growth and trends in prison populations; (3) reasons for prison population growth; (4) the relevance of high prison populations; and (5) measures to reduce high prison populations. References