Imprisonments

The imprisonment statistics consist of four main units; prison population per 1 January, entries, departures and days of imprisonment. Statistics Norway also publishes statistics on populations based on new imprisonments and discharges, which are broken down into type of entry and departure respectively. A person who enters and departs from prison more than once during a year will appear in the imprisonment statistics the corresponding number of times if the said entry and departure fall under the definitions of entries and departures respectively.

The figures in the imprisonment statistics consist of the following units:

Prison population per 1 January

Shows the number of people imprisoned at the start of the statistical year. Together with the average number of prisoners (see definition below), this unit describes the prison population in Norwegian prisons at any given time of year.

Entries

Consist of new imprisonments and re-imprisonments. A breakdown by type of entry shows the scope of new imprisonments to custody or for serving a sentence, and different types of re-imprisonments. The term “re-imprisonment” is used after an escape, failure to return after provisional leave, intermission sentence or other reasons.

New imprisonments

New remands into custody and new imprisonments to serve a sentence during the statistical year. An imprisonment to serve a sentence is due to a sanction regarding an unconditional prison sentence, preventive detention or a fine.

Transfers from custody to serving sentence

The number of departures from custody in which the prisoner is transferred directly to serving a prison sentence or preventive detention during the statistical year.

Departures

Consist of discharges and other types of departures from imprisonment. A breakdown by type of departure shows the scope of discharges from custody, from serving a prison sentence and other types of departures. Discharges from prison are further broken down into number of definite discharges or pardons, and the number of conditional discharges during the year. Other types of departure are escape, failure to return after provisional leave, intermission sentence or departure for other reasons.

Discharges

All disharges from custody (that is not a transfer to serving sentence, see above) as well as all types of discharges after serving a prison sentence (see Departures).

Days of imprisonment

Shows the total number of days spent in penal institutions during the statistical year. This includes days spent serving a sentence outside the penal institution, in either a treatment institution, hospital or under provisional leave. Sentences served by electronic monitoring are not included in the statistics on number of days of imprisonment.

Prison population

Average number that shows the total number of prisoners on an average day in Norway in the statistical year, and calculated based on the total number of days spent in penal institutions during the statistical year (see above, and Collection of data, editing and estimations under Production).

The units in the imprisonment statistics are broken down into the following variables and groups of variables:

Offences

The acts described by law at any time as punishable. In the digital register, SSP, used as basis for the statistics on imprisonment, more than 600 different codes are in use for registering offences committed. The statistics on imprisonment are following the Statistics Norway’s’ standard classification of these codes into group and/or type of principal offence. Following the Penal Code of 2005 coming into effect on 1 October 2015, around 430 new codes were introduced into the police’ registration system for offences. These replaced the codes from the Penal Code of 1902. Consequentially, Statistics Norway now uses the new version of Standard for types of offences, Type of offence 2015, to classify both old and new codes. From the release of the year 2015 and onwards, the statistics thus contain the following breakdown of offences (see also Statistical Classifications and Code Lists – KLASS for more info):

Group of offence

A division of offences into nine main groups. These groups of offences are further divided into more specified types of offences.

Type of offence

A division of offences into about 150 unique types. Similar types of offences are grouped together to aggregated levels, where all levels are included in the nine groups of offences.

Category of offence

A classification of offences used in the statistics for the period 1993-2014, where offences were classified as either a crime or a misdemeanor. For more information on this expired classification, see the version Types of offences 2006 in KLASS.

Principal offence

If the imprisonment relates to more than one offence, it is grouped by the principal offence, i.e. the offence that, according to law, carries the most severe sentence. When these offences are classified according to the standard classification of type of offence, the terms principal offence, group of principal offence and principal category of offence are used. In the raw data received from the Norwegian Police IT Unit, the principal offence has already been ascribed for each unit (see Sources of error and uncertainty under Sources of error).

Type of imprisonment

Classifies the units by the different types of sanctions, i.e. custody, prison sentence (both in institution and by electronic monitoring), preventive detention and imprisonment for non-payment of a fine. Type of imprisonment is a new denomination as from 2012, and is synonymous with the variable “type of sanction” used in earlier statistics on imprisonments. The 2012 statistics contain more detailed breakdowns by the different types of imprisonments.

Custody

Prisoners who are imprisoned for more than three days, and who are not registered with other sanctions (definition due to missing data from SSP on the court’s decision on remand in custody). Prisoners who are imprisoned for three days or less are placed in the arrests category, and are not included in the imprisonment statistics (cf. the Criminal Procedure Act, Chapter 14, Section183; “If the prosecuting authority wishes to detain the arrested person, it must, as soon as possible and not later than on the third day following the arrest, bring him before the District Court at the place where it is most appropriate to do so, with an application that he be remanded in custody”.) When Statistics Norway receives data from the Norwegian Police IT Unit, custody is already grouped based upon the three-day criteria.

Prison sentence

Includes unconditional prison sentences and the anticipated serving of an unconditional custodial sentence that is not yet legally binding. Prison sentence refers to both serving a sentence in an institution and by electronic monitoring, types that are specified in tables on type of imprisonment.

Preventive detention

An indefinite sentence that may be imposed on a person considered to be legally sane and culpable, at a high risk of re-offending and a danger to society. There is no upper limit for preventive detention, which means the sanction can last for the remainder of the person’s life. Preventive detention is one of three special sanctions that were introduced on 1 January 2002 and replaced the previous arrangement for security detention. After this introduction, the units containing security detention have been classified as the same type of imprisonment as preventive detention.

Electronic monitoring

Serving of an unconditional prison sentence with an ankle tag outside a penal institution. Electronic monitoring is used for convicts with an unconditional sentence of up to six months (for the duration of the sentence), or for prisoners who have up to six months remaining until their expected release date (partial use of electronic monitoring). The use of electronic monitoring is excluded for particular types of offences. Persons serving a prison sentence by electronic monitoring are included in the statistics on prison population per 1 January, entries (including new imprisonments) and departures (including discharges) as from year 2008. Electronic monitoring was originally introduced as an experimental scheme in six Norwegian counties on 1 September 2008. In May 2014 the use of electronic monitoring became a nationwide scheme, with a total of 342 monitoring units in capacity. Since then the capacity on monitoring units has been expanded to a total of 500 units.

Prisoners serving a prison sentence by electronic monitoring are included under the category “prison sentence” in the statistics classified by type of imprisonment. Imprisonment by electronic monitoring is not included in the statistics showing total number of days spent in penal institutions or average number of prisoners during the statistical year.

Imprisonment for non-payment of a fine

Is imposed on those who default on a fine. When the court settles a case with a fine, a custodial sentence of one day to three months is also determined, which can be enforced if the fine is not paid. This is known as a default custodial sentence. Those in receipt of a fine are called on to serve a default custodial sentence if the fine is not paid within the specified deadline.

Prison time

The total time spent deprived of liberty during the imprisonment from which a person is released or transferred. This variable is measured by the number of days in closed institutions, open institutions, electronic monitoring, treatment institutions, reprimand, provisional leave and day release. Due to the definition of custody, prison time in custody is calculated from the fourth day after the arrest until the date of release from custody or date of transfer from custody to serve a sentence.

Type of deprivation of liberty

A classification that shows the scope of prison stays in either closed or open institutions, and on day release, provisional leave, reprimand or stays in hospitals or treatment institutions.

Age

A person’s age is defined as their age on 1 January in the statistical year (prison population), or per date of entry to or departure from a penal institution.

Citizenship

Defined based on two different sources. Where there is a match for personal ID numbers in the Central Population Register, the person’s citizenship is derived from this source. As an example, this was the case for about 80 per cent of the prison population per 1 January 2012 and of all new imprisonments this year. For all persons who cannot be identified in the Central Population Register (by means of date of birth, personal ID number or name), information about citizenship registered by the police is used. Approximately two thirds of all non-Norwegian citizens among the prison population per 1 January and among those imprisoned during the year had their citizenship defined this way in the 2012 statistics.

The annual versions of the following Statistics Norway standards are used (see Definitions of the main concepts and variables under Definitions and Comparability over time and space under Production):

Classification of type of offence: Standard for type of offences are divided into nine main groups. These groups of offences are further divided into several underlying, more specified, types of offences.

Age: classified by groups; 15-17, 18-20, 21-24, 25-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-.

Classification of citizenship and continents