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PRISON POPULATION

Spain’s under-25 prison population increases by 11% over the last year

Overall numbers of people being held behind bars falls to 61,500, a 6% drop on last year

A prison cell in a Barcelona prison.
A prison cell in a Barcelona prison.Carles Riba

The number of young people being held in Spanish prisons has increased by 11% over the last year. In June of 2015, there were 5,843 persons aged between 18 and 25, a figure that has risen to 6,486, according to the latest figures released by the country’s prison administration, the SGIP.

Some 61,500 people were being held at the end of June, a 6% fall on the same month in 2015. Of these, 28% were foreigners, although that figure has fallen by 9% during the same period. The majority of Spain’s prison population (92%) are men aged between 41 and 61.

The prison population fell overall throughout Spain’s regions, except for Aragón, where it rose by 0.2%. The biggest drop was in Catalonia, by 24.2%, ahead of Navarra, (-17.8%) and Extremadura (-10.6%). In the Spanish exclave of Melilla, the number of prisoners rose by 13%

The region with the largest prison population is Andalusia, with 14,288 people behind bars. Catalonia has 8,789, and Madrid 8,121. The ranking has remained stable for the last decade.

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One in 10 prisoners are serving a sentence for theft and fraud, with almost 11,500 behind bars for drug trafficking, while 3,876 are in jail for murder, and around 4,000 for offenses related to gender-specific violence.

Figures show that around 55% of Spanish prisoners reoffend and end up back in jail.

Experts complain of a lack of coordination between the various systems that come into play: the judiciary, the penitentiary and the social services. Adding to the difficulty are the different levels of authority involved: state, regional and municipal.

English version by Nick Lyne.

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