More prisoners than prison spaces

There are currently 489 people on the Directorate of Prisons list of individuals having received a conviction and waiting to serve their sentence. Over half will need to serve a jail sentence, while Iceland has just 165 prison spaces.

Growing waiting list

The waiting list has grown considerably in recent years. In 1998, there were just 33 people waiting to serve a sentence. This figure had increased to 97 in 2005, 213 in 2009, and stands at 489 today.

Since 2009, the number of individuals on the waiting list to serve a criminal sentence has exceeded the total number of prison places available in Iceland.

Tougher sentences

Coupled with this is the phenomenon of harsher sentences. In 2000, Icelandic judges sentenced convicted individuals to a total of 202 years in prison. By 2013, this had risen to 423 years. “Sentences increased by 35% between 2006 and 2007,” explains Páll Winkel, Director for Prisons. “This was not just a blip – we have continued to see year-on-year increases in sentence length since then.”

According to Winkel, cutting the waiting list is a long-term task. Among the solutions under consideration are: probation, sentence lapse periods, reprieves, and creating more prison spaces.