Number of prisoners and probation clients continued to increase – Statistical Yearbook 2023 published

Daily number of prisoners increased for the second year in the row, sentences for robbery and sexual offences rising

In 2023, the average daily number of prisoners was 3 143, which was about 90 more than the year before. The total number of sentenced offenders arriving in prison was just under 6 500, which was nearly 500 more than in 2022. The biggest increase was in the number of fine default prisoners (2 347), which was about 23 per cent higher than the year before.

On average, prison sentences were short. Nearly 40 per cent of the released sentenced prisoners had served at most three months of the sentence in prison. The average length of a prison sentence was 11 months, which was slightly shorter than in the previous year.

The share of first-time offenders has risen from 37 to 43 per cent in the past ten years. In addition, the number of young prisoners and foreign prisoners is increasing. Foreign prisoners accounted for 18 per cent and under 21-year-olds 3.5 per cent of all prisoners.

Based on the principal offence, the largest group (34%) was prisoners sentenced for violent offences, of whom 21 per cent were sentenced for homicide and 13 per cent for assault. The share of prisoners sentenced for violent offences has declined by 7 percentage points in the past decade. A fifth of all prisoners were sentenced for narcotics offences, 12 per cent for robberies and 8 per cent for sexual offences as the principal offence. About four out of ten of the foreign sentenced prisoners were sentenced for narcotics offences.

Driving while intoxicated most common offence among community service clients, offence against property among persons sentenced to conditional imprisonment with supervision

The average daily number of all probation clients was 3 785 of whom 1 682 were serving community service. The average number of probation clients rose by about 8 per cent between 2022 and 2023. The biggest increase was in the number of clients in the preparation phase of the enforcement, which is estimated to be caused by the backlog of client processes.

The average number of persons sentenced to conditional imprisonment with supervision was about 8 per cent higher than in 2022. This was by far the most common sanction among young offenders: 79 per cent of under 21-year-old probation clients were sentenced to conditional imprisonment with supervision. The low number of juvenile punishments remained unchanged at around 7 per cent. All in all, the share of under 21-year-olds of all probation clients dropped by 4 percentage points since 2022. The largest age group was 30–39-year-olds, who accounted for 23 per cent of persons sentenced to community sanctions.

The most common principal offence of community service clients was driving while intoxicated. In the 2023 survey, the share of those sentenced for driving while intoxicated was 41 per cent. The most common principal offence of supervised parolees was an offence against life or health (38%) and the most common principal offence of persons sentenced to conditional imprisonment with supervision was an offence against property (32%).

Statistical Yearbook 2023 [pdf, 633.3 kt]
Orther statistics and statistical yearbooks of the Prison and Probation Service

Further information:
Senior Specialist Tuomas Laurila, tel. +358 50 304 2068, [email protected]