According to the World Prison Population List (8th Edition), “More than 9.8 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world…This is an increase of 300,000 since the previous edition two years ago. If prisoners in ‘administrative detention’ in China are included the total is over 10.6 million.”
The list was published on January 26, 2009 by the International Centre for Prison Studies at King’s College London.
Some Countries Jail People at very High Rates
Roy Walmsley compiled the list, which reveals that, “Almost half of the world’s prisoners are in the United States (2.29 million), China (1.57 million sentenced prisoners), or Russia (0.89 million) – countries which account for just over a quarter of the world’s population.”
The United States has about 756 prisoners per 100,000 people; that’s the highest in the world. Russia is the next highest at around 629 per 100,000. The United Kingdom locks away 153 prisoners per 100,000 residents. One of the lowest incarceration rates is in Denmark at 63 per 100,000 citizens.
Prison is a last Resort in Denmark
The Danish justice system is based on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Writing in The New Statesman (September 4, 2006) Nick Pearce reported that Denmark “does all it can to keep people out of jail, and once there, to prepare them for life back in the community. Its sentences are short, but its re-offending rates far lower. In Denmark, prison appears to work for the right reasons.”
In his 2005 book, “Prisons and Prison Systems,” Michael P. Roth writes that Denmark’s modern penal code can be traced back to 1930, when corporal and capital punishment were abolished, as well imprisonment at hard labour.”
The average Danish prison sentence is just 6.2 months, with just two percent of Danish prisoners spending more than two years in jail.
Life in Ringe State Prison
On an island called Funen in the central part of Denmark is the Ringe State Prison. This is where Danes who have committed serious crimes such as murder and armed robbery are sent.”
In a monograph “After Prison: The Case for Offender Reintegration” published online by the Institute for Security Studies, Ringe is described as having “as its first priority the preparation of inmates to live as normal members of society after their release. There are no bars or armoured glass, although it is a closed maximum security prison surrounded by an inconspicuous enclosing wall and equipped with a sophisticated video surveillance system.”
Nick Pearce, who visited the prison, wrote that, “Prisoners live in small units with communal kitchens…Ringe is a mixed-sex prison and married couples live in a special wing. Children can live with their parents in prison until the age of three. Sex between inmates is permitted if wardens are convinced that the relationship is serious.”
Does Denmark’s Justice System Work?
The hardliners of the lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key school scoff at Denmark’s lenient approach to criminal justice. However, it seems to work. On July 2, 2003 Dan Damon reported for BBC News that, “While 55 percent of British prisoners will re-offend and come back to jail, in Denmark the re-offending rate is just 27 percent.”
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