Vol. 572 No. 3
450 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if Ireland has the highest rate of juvenile incarceration within the EU; and the rates of incarceration for juveniles here and elsewhere in Europe. [22882/03]
For the purpose of this question a juvenile is assumed to be a person aged under 18 years of age. The Council of Europe "Annual Penal Statistics Survey 2002 (SPACE I)" indicates that the percentage of juveniles detained in the Irish prison system on 1 September 2002 was below that of a number of other European Union countries. The figure for Ireland of 1.5% represents the mean of the 41 countries for which returns were recorded in the SPACE I survey. Details of the information requested by the Deputy for the European Union countries available have been extracted from this survey and are as follows:
|
Country |
% of prisoners under eighteen years of age in custody on 1 September 2002 |
|
Austria |
1.5 |
|
Belgium |
1.1 |
|
Denmark |
0.3 |
|
Finland |
0.5 |
|
France |
1.3 |
|
Ireland |
1.5 |
|
Luxembourg |
2.4 |
|
Netherlands |
0.6 |
|
Portugal |
2.1 |
|
UK: England and Wales |
3.9 |
|
UK: Northern Ireland |
5.7 |
|
UK: Scotland |
2.8 |
