Defining and Registering Criminal Offences and Measures - Oapen

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Prison Population
(stock). However, the definition of persons held in penal institutions varies from
one country to another. The main problem comes from the fact that some countries
include certain categories of persons and others not.
The problematic categories are the following:
Minors (i.e. persons held in institutions for juvenile offenders)
Persons held in institutions for drug-addict offenders
Mentally ill offenders held in psychiatric institutions or hospitals
Offenders serving their sentence under electronic surveillance (e.g. home detention
curfew prior to final release from prison)
Persons held in facilities under the responsibility of any other Ministry than the Ministry
of Justice
Asylum seekers or illegal aliens held for administrative reasons
As far as minors are concerned, they are usually held in separate institutions.
As a consequence, sometimes they do not appear in the penitentiary statistics of
the country.
The persons held in institutions for drug-addict offenders are usually offenders
found guilty but sent to a special institution because of their drug addiction. However,
in some countries, this category may include persons who were considered as
not criminally responsible for their behaviour because they acted under the influence
of drugs, but who have been sentenced to a measure that includes treatment
for drug addiction. For some countries, the key element is that these persons are
deprived of freedom, and therefore they are counted in their penal statistics; for
other countries, the key element is that these persons were not considered as offenders
by the court (i.e. they were not responsible for their acts) and therefore
they are not considered as prisoners.
The same reasoning applies to mentally ill offenders held in psychiatric institutions
or hospitals.
As far as offenders serving their sentence under electronic surveillance are
concerned, in some countries they are not included because they are not considered
as prisoners, while in others they are and therefore are included in the total
number of persons deprived of freedom.
Nowadays, persons held in facilities under the responsibility of any other Ministry
than the Ministry of Justice are usually persons arrested in police facilities.
Even if they remain there only for one day, some countries include them in their
penal statistics and others do not.
Even if asylum seekers or illegal aliens held for administrative reasons must
not be considered as offenders to the criminal code, some countries include them
in the total number of persons deprived of freedom. Possible reasons may be that
they are held in prisons because there are not enough special facilities for them,