The Criminal-Executive System of Ukraine in December 2018. Statistical Overview

The Criminal-Executive System of Ukraine in December 2018. Statistical Overview
© “Donetsk Memorial”

In the 148 institutions of the criminal-executive system of Ukraine controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, that is, excluding institutions in Crimea and the occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, according to data from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, there were 55,121 persons as of 1 December 2018. To determine trends in the number of prisoners, data as of 1 November 2018 (55,901 persons) are provided in parentheses here and further on. That is, the number of persons in places of detention decreased by 780 in one month.
The dynamics of the number of persons in the institutions of the criminal-executive system over the last two years are as follows:
01.01.2017: 60,399 persons,
01.01.2018: 57,100 persons,
01.11.2018: 55,901 persons,
01.12.2018: 55,121 persons.
The indicator of the number of prisoners per 100,000 population for Ukraine is 131. It is calculated based on the population of Ukraine, which, according to the estimate of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, was 42.029 million citizens as of 01.11.2018.
In the 12 active pre-trial detention centres and 17 penal institutions with pre-trial detention functions (formerly pre-trial detention centres – Auth.), 19,247 persons were held as of 01.12.2018 (19,062 persons a month ago). Thus, in one month, the number of persons held in pre-trial detention centres and penal institutions increased by 180 persons.
It is worth noting that the cited number mainly covers persons taken into custody and a small number of convicts who are serving sentences in these institutions. Instead, Ministry of Justice specialists are not yet able to count these two groups of prisoners separately and accurately specify the number of each group, and therefore present them together.
The number of convicted persons in 113 criminal-executive institutions for adults and 6 educational colonies for teenagers decreased in November 2018 by 469 persons and amounted to 35,744 persons (36,213 persons). In the six educational colonies for minors, 130 persons are serving sentences (a month ago – 136 persons). In the 11 colonies for holding women, there are 1,444 women (a month ago there were 1,459 women).
While citing the number of convicts in various categories of institutions, the Ministry of Justice indicates the number of institutions in each of these groups. At the same time, it is stated that in 17 penal institutions, convicts are not held in connection with the optimisation of their activities. Therefore, in each of the cited groups, the real number of institutions in which convicts are actually held is less than the officially cited number, but the Ministry of Justice specialists currently lack the expertise to calculate exactly how much less. This is precisely why the department cites the total number of institutions that once existed for certain groups of prisoners.
The number of life-sentenced persons in institutions controlled by the authorities was 1,538 as of 1 December 2018 (a month ago – 1,539 persons).
During the 11 months of 2018, the number of life-sentenced prisoners decreased by 34 persons. Given that 20-30 persons are sentenced to life imprisonment annually, the fact of a very significant decrease in their total number requires more scrutiny. It is worth adding that as of 1 September 2014, there were 1,909 life-sentenced prisoners in Ukraine.
In the information regarding the state of the Criminal-Executive System of Ukraine as of 1 December, there is no data on the number of persons registered with probation bodies. Obviously, no one in the Ministry of Justice is concerned with tracking such persons or simply does not know how to do it. Meanwhile, as of 01.01.2018, there were 57,295 such persons (a year ago – 72,979 persons).
The diligence of the Ministry of Justice in compiling information about the state of the Criminal-Executive System is also evidenced by the date of submission of this information for December 2018 indicated on the website – 26 April 2018.