Skip to main content

Prison population. By sex. Provinces

Prison population. By type of custody and sex. Provinces 2009
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Convicts 6,812 229 1,003 217 8,261
Men 6,317 221 951 199 7,688
Women 495 8 52 18 573
Preventive 1,704 150 171 185 2,210
Men 1,558 143 160 185 2,046
Women 146 7 11 0 164
Total 53 0 1 0 54
Men 50 0 0 0 50
Women 3 0 1 0 4
Total 8,569 379 1,175 402 10,525
Source: Departament de Justícia. Direcció General de Serveis Penitenciaris i de Rehabilitació.

Last update: March 2, 2010.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Prision population
Set of people detained in penitentiary centres in compliance with custodial sentences in the Penal code and that are in any of the following procedural situations: accused criminals, convicts or detained on preventative grounds, if the cause is processed.

Methodological aspects

The introduction of the new penal Code, on January 1, 1996, led to the classification of convicts on the basis of a new typology of offences, which will coexist alongside the classification used in the previous Penal Code. For statistical purposes it should be noted, however, that each convict is only classified for one offence, always the one for which the convict has received the toughest sentence.

Data is provided on the penal courts that were created to take responsibility for judging and sentencing less serious offences. This also includes the activity of provincial audiences. The information is completed with data on the prison population on December 31.