Africa Region Coordinator:

Clement Okech

Country Experts:

• Kenya: Clement Okech
• South Africa: Francois Louw, Kim Kras
  

Countries in Africa:

There are 54 countries included in the African region https://www.worldometers.info/geography/how-many-countries-in-africa/

Community Corrections Systems in Africa Region

While we have data on the prison and jail population in countries across the African region, we do not yet have data on the size and scope of the community corrections systems operating in these countries. This is a major data shortfall that needs to be addressed.

In our description of the African region included in the  Handbook on Global Community Corrections, we noted the following: “According to the most recent data from the World Prison Brief, approximately 11% of the global prison population is held in African prisons. 10 of the world’s 50 largest prison systems are in Africa, including the two countries we profile from this region: Kenya, which has the 36th largest prison population globally, and South Africa, which has the 12th largest prison population. Between 2000 and 2021, the African region’s prison population increased by 32.4%; the global prison population increased 24.3% during this period. Unfortunately, we cannot provide similar baseline data on either the size of Africa’s community corrections population, or community corrections population trends for the countries in this region” ( Durnescu, et al., 2024: 13). 

Data needed to estimate the size of the community corrections population were only available for two of 10 African region countries with large prison populations: Kenya and South Africa. There is much we simply do not know—but need to know-- about the community corrections systems in this global region.  It is our hope that the detailed descriptions of the two African region community corrections systems  included in our Global Handbook--- Kenya and South Africa--- will lead governments of other countries in this region to examine their own country’s use of community corrections. Links to these chapters in the Handbook on Global Community Corrections are included here:

Community Corrections in South Africa 15 Lincoln G. Fitz, Francois C.M. Louw, and Kimberly R. Kras 2 Community Corrections in Kenya: A Developmental and Practice Account 37 Clement Okecha

We have noted that “ Examination of data for these two countries—while preliminary —suggests that [the]community [system]is  underutilized in this region. In Kenya, 18.7% of the country’s total corrections population is in the community corrections, and 28.3% of South Africa’s total corrections population is in the community corrections system.  Globally, Byrne and colleagues (2024) estimate that 52% of the total corrections population is located in the community corrections system. These proportions suggest that the community corrections systems of both countries are not well-developed, and the possible reasons for this are discussed by the chapter authors. Without data from more countries, we do not know whether these two countries are representative of the entire region. Based on what we see in other regions with more complete data on the size of their community corrections system, we suspect that there is likely significant variation across this region on the use of community corrections at the pre-trial, sentencing, and post-release phases of the criminal justice process” ( Durnescu et al., 2024: 14).

Asia Regional Coordinator:

Claire Lee

Country Experts:

• China: Shanhe Jiang, Spencer De Li, Sheldon Zhang, Claire Lee
• India: Shivangi Shikhar, Claire Lee
• Indonesia: Johannes Sutoyo
• Japan: Shoji Imafuku Satoshi Minoura, Hiroshi Tsutomi
• Pakistan: Claire Lee
• South Korea: Clair Lee
• Taiwan: Ming-Li Hsieh

Countries in Asia:

There are 48 countries included in the Asia region. https://www.worldometers.info/geography/how-many-countries-in-asia/

Community Corrections in Asia:

In the Handbook on Global Community Corrections, we argue that to understand community corrections in the Asian region, it is helpful to look first at the size and scope of prison systems across this region. According to data provided in the most recent World Prison Brief, 16 of the top 50 largest prison populations are housed in prisons across this region, which represents 38.8% of the global prison population. Asia’s prison population has increased 38.4% between 2000 and 2021. As we found when we looked at intra-regional differences in prison population trends for other global regions, there was significant variation across sub-regions of Asia, which was highlighted by the authors of the most recent World Prison Population List: 

“Prison population trends since 2000 in Asia have varied greatly between the different parts of the continent: total prisoner numbers in south-eastern Asia and in western Asia (Middle East) rose by 116% and 119% respectively while the total in central Asia fell by 44%. China and India, with their high national populations, strongly influence the overall Asian prison population level, but show contrasting trends: the total prison population in China rose by 18%, and in India by 76%. Excluding these two countries, the Asian prison population rose by 52%.” (2021: 18). 

The overall size of the community corrections population in this region is difficult to estimate because data are missing for several of the countries in this region. However, we do have access to these data for the 10 of the 16 countries in Asia with the largest prison systems (see Byrne, Hummer, and Rapisarda, 2024). We identified significant intra-regional variation in the proportion of the total corrections populations of these countries located in the community corrections system.

Potential explanations for the identified intra-regional variations in the utilization of community corrections at the pre-trial, sentencing, and post-release/reentry stages of the criminal justice process can be found in the four chapters in this section of the Handbook covering Asia: we include profiles of community corrections in China, Japan, India, and South Korea.

Community Corrections in China: Past Development, Current Practices, and Future Challenges Spencer D. Li, Lu Xie, and Hui Shen 

 Probation: A Singular Alternative to Incarceration, Reformation, and Community Corrections in India Shivangi Shikhar and Ntasha Bhardwa

 Community Corrections in Japan: An Illustration of the Hogoshi System 88 Imafuku Shoji and Minoura Satoshi 

 The Past, Present, and the Future of Community Corrections in South Korea: Focusing on Probation 113 Claire Seungeun Lee 

In our review of these four country profiles, we have noted the following: “There was significant variation in the proportion of the total corrections population in the community corrections system across these four countries. China has the second largest prison population globally, and it is estimated that their total correctional population is 2,327,456, with 72.6% held in carceral settings, and 27.4% in the community corrections system. By comparison, India’s institutional corrections system— the 4th largest globally-- appears to rely much less often on community corrections, with only 6.6% of their total corrections population of 593,233 in the community corrections system.  It should also be noted that 77% of the people in India’s prisons and jails are being held pre-trial. Despite a series of 2016 reforms aimed at reducing the pre-trial population noted in a recent review by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, there is little evidence that much has changed in India. The proportion of the total corrections population located in the community corrections system in Japan is also relatively low.  It is estimated that 23.9% of Japan’s total correctional population (60,062) is in the community corrections system. The final country profiled from the Asian region is South Korea, which—unlike China, India, and Japan-- has a very large proportion (83%) of its total corrections population (estimated at 310,737) in the community corrections system” ( Durnescu, et al., 2024; 57-58). 

We have identified country experts for only a handful of the countries in this region (7 of 48), and we are actively searching for individuals with expertise in community corrections in other countries in this region.

Regional Coordinator:

Deborah Koetzle

Country Experts:

• Bahamas: Deborah Koetzle
• Belize: Wayne Pitts
• Costa Rica: Wayne Pitts
• Turks & Caicos: Deborah Koetzle, Jeff Mellow

There are 33 countries in the Central American and Caribbean region, including  7 countries in Central America and 26 in the Caribbean.

The Central American countries are Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

There are a total of 26 countries in the Caribbean, but the following 13 countries are the largest in this region: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. ( For a full listing, see https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/central-america-and-the-caribbean/ 

We are currently in the early stages of identifying country experts in this region; once identified, we will be developing community corrections system profiles for select countries in this region. For the following countries in this region, an initial list of community corrections resources has been created: Barbados, Cuba, El Salvador, and Jamaica.

North American Region Coordinator:

Jill Viglione

Country Experts:

• Canada: Guy Bourgon, Dan Beto
• Mexico: Gustavo Javier Fondevila, Lina Marmolejo
  United States: Todd Clear, Ron Corbett, Don Hummer, Pam Lattimore, Arthur Lurigio, Ben Mackey, April Pattavina , Nicholas Powell, Sabrina Rapisarda, Jill Viglione

Countries in North American Region:

Mexico, Canada, and United States

Community Corrections in North America:

The United States, Canada, and Mexico represent the North America region. As we point out in our regional overview for the Global Community Corrections Handbook, “The United States has the distinction of having the largest correctional population in the world, both in terms of number of people incarcerated and on community supervision with the highest per capita rate of using the correctional system” ( Durnescu et al., 2024: 311).  There were close to 2 million people incarcerated in the United States in 2024.  According to a recent review by Sawyer and Wagner( 2024) for the Prison Policy Initiative, “ the U.S. doesn’t have one criminal legal system; instead, we have thousands of federal, state, local, and tribal systems. Together, these systems hold over 1.9 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,323 juvenile correctional facilities, 142 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories — at a system-wide cost of at least $182 billion each year” ( https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2024.html  ). In addition to our prison and jail population,  it is estimated that we  have about 3.7 million individuals on community supervision, based on 2023 data( Wang, 2023; Byrne, Hummer, and Rapisarda, 2024) .For a breakdown of probation and parole populations, See https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/correctionalcontrol2023.html .

In our Global Community Corrections Handbook, we offer the following overview of the community corrections system in the United States: “The federal system has prisons and parole for those convicted of federal crimes. The federal probation system is run from the Administrative Office of the Courts, a branch of the judiciary while the prisons are run by an executive agency known as the Federal Bureau of Prisons.[  Most ]individuals involved in the criminal legal system in the United States are in the state and local systems which run prisons, jails, probation, and/or parole. States tend to run prisons and local county governments run the local jails. Probation serves are administered by either a state or local agency. Typically, when the probation and parole services are combined, the agencies are administered by a state government. Separate agencies mean that the probation agencies are run by the judiciary (in seven states) and the remaining are run by county governments. Many states abolished parole which means that there is no discretionary release, and in these instances, individuals are released to probation supervision” ( Durnescu et al., 2024: 311). 

To highlight state-level differences in community corrections systems, we included profiles of the following five state systems in our Global Handbook: California, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Links to each of these chapters are provided here: Probation and Parole in California: An Experiment in Community Corrections Reform Kimberly R. Kras and Carina F. Rodrigues 

Georgia Department of Community Supervision (US)  Nicholas K. Powell and Tonya Van Deinse 

Community Supervision in Florida  Jill Viglione and Nicholas Paul 

 Community Corrections in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.A. Ronald P. Corbett, Jr., with Pratikshya Bohra-Mishra (Parole), Brian W. Mirasolo (Probation), and Edward J. Dolan (Probation) 

Community Corrections in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania  Don Hummer

 In the United States Resources section, there are dozens of research articles and reports on community supervision in the United States, along with the latest data on the country’s probation and parole populations.

The North American region also includes Mexico, although some authors we review have grouped Mexico with countries in Central and/or Latin America. Mexico has the 9th largest prison population globally . In 2023, there were 230,730 individuals in Mexico’s prison system; 36.8% were pre-trial detainees, according to data provided in the World Prison Brief.  Unfortunately, we currently have very little information on size and scope of this country’s community corrections system . Our country experts  for Mexico are developing a profile on what community corrections  looks like in Mexico.Initial  resources they have identified are found on our website’s Mexico resource link, including a review of an ongoing  therapeutic justice initiative  developed by the Organization of American States https://www.oas.org/ext/en/security/therapeutic-justice-mexico ; and recent research on how Mexico reduced its prison and jail population using suspended sentences, pretrial release, and parole during the pandemic. An article summarizing these reforms is available on our website: 

Responding to COVID-19 in Latin American Prisons: The Cases of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico Lina Marmolejo , Daniela Barberi , Marcelo Bergman , Olga Espinoza & Gustavo Fondevila The third North American country we cover is Canada. The most recent data on the size of Canada’s prison population are for 2021. 35,485 adults incarcerated in Canada’s federal prisons and provinces. As Guy Bourgon (2024) points out in his chapter on Canada for the Global Handbook ( 2024: 311), “ Correctional Service Canada is responsible for prisons for individuals with a sentence of two years or more and for supervising individuals under conditional release in the community. The provinces run the local facilities that incarcerate individuals for under two years and that are on probation for misdemeanor offenses. Collectively, the federal system has under 13,000 in prison and 82,000 on probation and the provinces have nearly 21,000 in local jails (most in pretrial status) and nearly 69,000 on probation (Statistics Canada, 2023)” . For more information on Canada’s community corrections system, see our resource links and  Bourgon’s chapter  in our Global Handbook: Community Corrections in Canada , authored by  Guy Bourgon

Oceania Region Coordinator:

Phillipa Evans

Country Experts:

Australia: Tygh Field, Karen Gelb, Phillipa Evans, Chris Trotter
New Zealand: Kim Kras

Countrieshttps://globcci.org/phillipa-evans in Oceana:

https://www.worldometers.info/geography/how-many-countries-in-oceania/  The Oceanic region is comprised of the following countries: Australia, New Zealand, and a dozen smaller countries, including Papa New Guinea, French Polynesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Somoa.

Community Corrections in Oceana Region:

The community corrections systems of  the two largest countries in this region, Australia and New Zealand are described in our Global Handbook on Community Corrections Several data and resource links are available for countries in this region; Links to the chapters are provided below: 

Community Corrections in Australia Phillipa Evans, Charlene Pereira, Dominic van Gestel, and Chris Trotter 

Probation/Parole Supervision in Aotearoa New Zealand 502 Devon L. L. Polaschek and Heather A. Mackie

South American Regional Coordinator:

Lina Marmolejo

Country Experts:

• Argentina: Marcelo Bergman
• Columbia: Lina Marmolejo, Daniela Barberi
• Chile: Olga Espinoza, Deborah Koetzle, Lina Marmolejo, Jeff Mellow

Countries in South America:

There are 12 countries in South America-Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname, plus two other territories French Guiana and Falkland Islands. For more details, see https://www.worldometers.info/population/countries-in-south-america-by-population/ .

Community Corrections in South America:

In the Handbook on Global Community Corrections, we offer the following description of the corrections systems operating  in South America ( Durnescu et al., 2024: 443 ): “11.2% of the global prison population is in South América (1,272,338). Six of the world’s largest prison systems are in this region: Brazil (ranked 3 of 50), Argentina (15), Columbia (18), Peru (22), Venezuela (35), and Chile (43). Brazil’s prison population has seen significant population increases since 2000; it is the largest prison system in South America; 40% of the 835,643 individuals incarcerated in Brazil are in pre-trial detention. The entire region has experienced exponential growth in the prison population from 200-2021, with a 200% increase reported in the latest World Prison Population List. 

For four of these 6 large South American prison systems, data were available on the size of the community corrections system. Unfortunately, community corrections data were not available for both Brazil and Venezuela. In Argentina, only 4% of the total corrections population was in the community corrections system. The relative size of the community corrections system was larger in Peru (25%), Chile (26%), and Columbia (43%)”.

The Global Handbook only includes profiles of the community corrections system in two of the four countries with community corrections systems. We could not identify a community corrections expert in either Argentina or Peru, but we have identified experts in Columbia and Chile. See the chapters in our Handbook:

1. Alternatives to Incarceration in Colombia Daniela Barberi and Lina M. Marmolejo 
2. Legal Reforms, Non-Custodial Sanctions, and Parole in Chile Sebastián Galleguillos, Deborah Koetzle, and Jeff Mellow

We have noted that “ These chapters provide important insights about how the community corrections system  is viewed by the governments of both countries. One notable caveat about Columbia is needed: It is possible that proportion of Columbia’s correctional population supervised in the community corrections system —the highest in South America ( 43%)—represents the government’s recent reforms in  response to the large jump in the country’s prison population, which had increased from 51,518 in 2000 to 120,444 in 2015. Since then, the prison population has significantly declined; it was 98,992 in 2021(World Prison Population List, thirteenth edition)”( Durnescu et al., 2024: 443).

We have begun developing profiles and collecting resources of the community corrections systems operating in several countries in this region, but there is much work to be done.