Imprisonment rates are on the increase in Europe and the length of time spent behind bars is also on the rise, according to the Council of Europe's Annual Penal Statistics (SPACE) for 2016, published on 20 March. The incarceration rate grew from 115.7 to 117.1 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants from 2015 to 2016. The countries where the incarceration rate grew the most were
Bulgaria (+10.8%), Turkey (+9.5%), the Czech Republic (+7.6%), Serbia
(+6.6%) and Denmark (+5.5%). Imprisonment rates fell most in Iceland (-15.9%), Northern Ireland
(-11.8%), Lithuania (-11.1%) and Belgium (-10.1%).