Israel has the highest number of prisoners per capita in the world.
Its prisons are overcrowded and are the most densely populated, President Chaim Herzog told the nation in his monthly radio talk Friday.
He said there are 150 prisoners for every 100,000 people in Israel, not including security prisoners.
Comparable figures in Europe range from 29 per 100,000 in Holland to 114 in Austria.
Herzog also pointed out that while prisoners in the United States have an average of 19 square yards of space per inmate and European prisons average 12 to 14 square yards, prisoners in Israel are allotted only 2 to 3 square yards.
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