Prison population rates in many European countries have increased until the beginning of the 21st century. Prison overcrowding and questions around the ‘New Punitiveness’ have dominated the discourse. Recently a remarkable drop in prison population rates can be observed, in particular in Central and East European countries (for example, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states), but also in West European jurisdictions (the Netherlands, Germany and, in the last few years, also Spain). Explanations are not always easy and in most cases this is not the result of a strategic policy but more likely of a sharp decrease in (serious) crime rates. The paper discusses the developments in a European comparative perspective and explores the potentials for a further reduction in prison population rates.

This article investigates the prevalence of traumatization and mental distress in a sample of 1055 male European long-term prisoners as part of a wider study of the living conditions of prisoners serving sentences of at least five years in Belgium,

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