The Penitentiary System of Ukraine in the First Half of 2019. A Statistical Review. Preliminary Data.
The information provided is preliminary and rather limited. More detailed information on the situation in the SCES of Ukraine as of mid-2019 will be published in the near future.
Thus, as of 1 July 2019, 54,186 persons were held in places of deprivation of liberty in Ukraine controlled by the Ukrainian government – that is, excluding institutions in Crimea and the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions – according to data published on the website of the State Criminal Executive Service of Ukraine (compared to 55,078 six months ago). Over the six-month period, the number of persons in places of deprivation of liberty decreased by 892 (having decreased by 2,022 over the whole of the previous year), or by –3.24% annualised (compared to –3.54% in 2018).
The dynamics of the number of persons in the institutions of the criminal executive system over the past two and a half years are presented in the table below.
Table
|
| Total number of persons in institutions of the State Criminal Executive Service | Change in the number of persons in institutions of the State Criminal Executive Service in % compared to the previous year |
| 01.01.2005 | 188,465 | -1.68% |
| 01.01.2017 | 60,399 | -13.17% |
| 01.01.2018 | 57,100 | -5.46% |
| 01.01.2019 | 55,078 | -3.54% |
| 01.07.2019 | 54,186 | -3.24%* |
* annualised
The prisoner rate per 100,000 of the population for Ukraine is 129 (compared to 131 six months ago). This is calculated based on the population of Ukraine, which, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, stood at approximately 42,005 thousand citizens as of 1 July 2019 – excluding Crimea.
The SCES does not report the number of remanded persons separately, providing only the total number of persons in 12 active pre-trial detention centres and 17 correctional institutions with the function of a pre-trial detention centre (former pre-trial detention centres – Author’s note) as of 1 July 2019. The number of those held there, including a small number of convicts, is 19,584.
There are 34,488 convicts held in 113 correctional institutions; in addition, 114 persons are serving sentences in juvenile correctional facilities (compared to 126 six months ago and 304 two and a half years ago).
The number of life-sentenced prisoners in state-controlled institutions was 1,516 as of 1 July 2019, representing a decrease of 25 persons over the six-month period. The reasons for this significant decrease in the number of lifers are not reported, but it is worth noting that 33 life-sentenced prisoners died in 2017 and 27 in 2018.
Number of persons serving sentences for the following offences as of 1 July 2019 (figures in parentheses indicate the status as of 1 January 2019):
number of persons convicted of intentional homicide – 6,619 (6,967);
number of persons convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm – 2,900 (2,939);
number of persons convicted of robbery, larceny, and extortion – 7,220 (7,817);
number of persons convicted of rape – 648 (693);
number of persons convicted of theft – 12,149
number of persons sentenced to a term of over 10 years – 5,186 (5,514)
It is evident that there has been extraordinary confusion regarding statistical data at the Ministry of Justice in recent years. This is confirmed by the cited number of active institutions. The statistical information published on the SCES website as of 1 July 2019 indicates that convicts are held in 113 institutions. At the same time, it is reported that convicts are not held in 25 correctional institutions due to the optimisation of their activities. Thus, the actual number of active institutions is 88.
We believe that the statistical data provided by the SCES of Ukraine should be used with extreme caution due to considerable uncertainty regarding its accuracy.