Discussion paper: The Use and Practice of Imprisonment: Current Trends and Future Challenges

Penal Reform International side-event at the 22nd session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Vienna 22-26 April 2013. Extract: "Latest UN data suggest that the share of the prison population in pre-trial detention worldwide decreased from 29 to 25 per cent between 2005 and 2011. Regionally, the percentage of pre-trial detainees fell from 61 to 35 per cent in Africa, from 25 to 24 per cent in the Americas and from 18 to 16 per cent in Europe, while it remained stable at 42 per cent in Asia.17 But official figures are likely to underestimate the numbers involved since in many countries detainees are held in police detention, escaping the prison statistics but not the fact of detention."