The percentage of prisoners of foreign nationality in the prisons of Catalonia once again sets a new historical record at the beginning of this month of May. In August 2023, the number of non-Spanish prisoners exceeded that of nationals for the first time. Specifically, of the 7,991 criminals in Catalan prisons nine months ago, 3,987 were nationals, 49.89%. 4,004, 50.11%, were foreigners.
These figures are updated weekly by the Department of Justice, Rights and Memory of the Generalitat of Catalonia. And this beginning of the month has once again set a new historical record: the latest update, dated May 9, 2024, reveals that In the region there are already 8,317 people in prison. Of these, 49.44% have Spanish nationality. Therefore, 50.56% are of foreign origin.
An especially sharp increase considering that in March 2022 the percentage of prisoners in Catalan prisons of foreign nationality was 41%. In just over two years, the growth has been almost ten points.
Furthermore, in the prison data of Catalonia you can consult the numbers of prisoners of foreign nationality, even by origin. Although these figures are not updated weekly, they do give an idea of the main areas from which criminals arrive. The last known statistics showed that 1,482 prisoners came from the Maghreb. The second most conflictive area would be Latin America, with 1,028 convicts in regional prisons.
Another worrying fact is the increase in the most serious violent crimes. Homicides and crimes against sexual freedom continue to grow. On April 12, we learned that more than a third of sexual assaults committed in Spain take place in Catalonia. In absolute terms, rapes in our country grew from 1,700 in 2018 to 4,825 in 2023. And of these, 32.8% in the last year took place in the Catalan community.
There are especially dangerous places for the main victims, women, where the numbers of attacks skyrocket. For example, this same week, the Barcelona Metro management company censored a campaign VOX that reported, with data from the Generalitat’s own Department of the Interior, that sexual assaults on public transport in Barcelona are growing by 45%.
Although economic crimes are still the main reason for conviction in the region (41.01% of those convicted, amounting to 3,649 people), homicides now represent 10.82%. For this crime there are currently 963 convicted people in Catalan prisons. Crimes against sexual freedom account for 9.44% of those committed, and the number of inmates amounts to 840.
