Cuba ranked third in the Caribbean in the rate of countries with the largest prison population and the sixth worldwide, according to the latest report of the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS), which is based in UK's Kings College.
Cuba 's prison population is 510 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, second only to the islands of St.Kits / Nevis ( 714) and Barbados ( 521). The United States tops the list with 716 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants worldwide.
Haiti, with 96 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, is the country with the lowest prison population in the Caribbean, a region that has average rate of 376 prisoners.
The ICPS report notes that there are 200 prisons in Cuba including 5 with maximum security. It further explains that on the island there was a dramatic increase in the prison population at the beginning of this century that went from 33,000 inmates in 1997 to 60,000 in 2006. According to figures from May of last year, the prison population in the island amounted to 57,000 people.
During a rare tour of some prisons offered to the media last April, Colonel Osmani Leyva Avila, deputy chief of the general management of prisons in Cuba said that so far, "the figure, always subject to fluctuations within the dynamics of correctional work, today is around 50,000 sanctioned with penalties punishable with detention... of this total, young people account for two percent and women three," Leyva said.
The ICPS draws up an annual report on the prison population by region, and prison conditions. Fifty four percent of the countries in the world have a prison population below 150 prisoners; only 18 countries have an index greater than 400 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. That list includes 14 Caribbean and Central American countries.
Although not part of that list, Venezuela, with 167 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants is quoted in the report as one of the countries with an alarming increase in its prison population. The 314 existing prisons in the country had 19,368 inmates in 2005, but that figure skyrocketed to 48,262 inmates last year.
The ICPS indicates that the biggest problem in Venezuela is overcrowding of the prison population since the country's prisons are at 217% capacity.
