Europe Moves Toward Alternatives to Prison, While Azerbaijan Ranks Second in Incarceration Rate
A new Council of Europe report based on the SPACE II survey shows that European countries are increasingly relying on alternatives to imprisonment, while Azerbaijan remains among the countries with the highest incarceration rates on the continent.
According to the report, the number of people under probation or conditional release in Europe has reached 1.4 million, surpassing the 1.1 million people currently held in prisons.
However, the use of non-custodial measures varies sharply from country to country. While Montenegro has only 16 people under community supervision per 100,000 inhabitants, Azerbaijan has 136, and Poland records the highest figure in Europe with 652 per 100,000 people.
Despite the wider European trend toward reducing prison populations, Azerbaijan continues to pursue a relatively harsh penal policy. Alongside Turkey, Moldova and Georgia, Azerbaijan remains among the countries with the highest levels of imprisonment.
The report says that 271 people per 100,000 inhabitants are held in Azerbaijani prisons. This places Azerbaijan second in Europe, behind only Turkey, where the figure stands at 458. The European median is 110 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, around two and a half times lower than Azerbaijan’s rate.
The report also notes that Azerbaijan’s prison occupancy rate remains high, with 98 prisoners for every 100 available places.
The figures raise renewed questions about the implementation of President Ilham Aliyev’s 2017 decree on the humanization of criminal justice policy and the wider use of alternatives to detention.
