Albania has one of the highest rates of suicides in prisons according to a report on penal statistics commissioned by the European Council.
Implemented by the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, the report measured a number of prison-related indicators for 2020 across Europe.
As of January 2021, there were 4,595 inmates in Albanian prisons against a population of roughly 2,8 million people.
During 2020, 19 inmates died by suicide, a rate of 10 suicides per 10,000 inmates. This is categorized as “very high” by the report, with the European average being 7.2 and the median 5.7.
Albania also ranks very high in the “Prison population rate per 100,000 inhabitants” category, compared to the European average.
The average sentence is 17.2 months and Albania spends €44.11 per day per inmate.
The country employs 4,553 people as staff for its prisons, 257 of which are medical staff and 2,413 are custodial.
On the flip side, Albania ranks low in the number of female inmates, along with North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia.