The prisons in Estonia are operated by the Estonian Department of Prisons, which currently maintains three prisons around the country: Tallinn Prison, Tartu Prison and Viru Prison.[1]

In March 2011, there were 3,405 persons incarcerated in Estonia, and the number of prisoners per 100,000 residents were 254, which is the third highest rate in the EU. These figures include pre-trial detainees and remand prisoners.[2][3] It is, however, a much lower rate than in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the Estonian prison population reached almost 5,000 persons.[2]

Estonian prisoners and prison population per 100,000 inhabitants[4]
Year Prisoners Prison population
per 100,000 inhabitants
1992 4778 312
1993 4514 302
1994 4518 309
1995 4401 306
1996 4228 301
1997 4752 341
1998 4342 315
1999 4679 341
2000 4803 351
2001 4775 350
2002 4352 321
2003 4575 339
2004 4565 339
2005 4410 328
2006 4310 321
2007 3466 258
2008 3656 273
2009 3555 265
2010[5] 3393 254
2011 3400 255
2012 3286 248

References

  1. ^ Intitutions
  2. ^ a b International Centre for Prison Studies: Estonia Archived 2012-03-22 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2011-07-29
  3. ^ International Centre for Prison Studies: Europe - Prison Population Rates per 100,000 Retrieved 2011-07-29
  4. ^ [1] (from the estonian prisons official webpage).
  5. ^ Prison_population 2002-2012 ec.europa.eu
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