Foreign offenders in prison and on probation in Europe

Book excerpt: Is there really an over-representation of foreign citizens in European prisons? Is the presence of foreign inmates comparable across regions and countries of Europe? How can one explain the differences in the trends shown by the absolute numbers and the percentages of foreign inmates from 2005 to 2015? Do foreign citizens have less access than nationals to alternatives to imprisonment? Do the data available allow researchers to establish whether the growth in the use of community sanctions and measures since the 1990s plays a role in the fluctuations observed in the percentage of foreign inmates? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in this book, which compiles and updates a series of specific indicators collected over 11 years through the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics (better known as the SPACE statistics), and accompanies the two volumes on prisons in Europe 2005-2015 in this collection. This volume includes maps and tables illustrating the state of prison (2005-2015) and probation agencies (2009-2015). In addition, the situation is analysed through individual country profiles, which include key facts and graphs covering the years 2005-2015.