The 47 nations were fairly even split on prison overcrowding, with 21 nations over capacity and 26 nations under capacity. When compared by region, it was observed that Eastern European nations tend to incarcerate a larger percentage of its citizens than the rest of Europe. In terms of the prison population rate per 100,000 citizens, Europe enjoys a relatively low rate of incarceration. A full 21 of the 47 nations under examination had imprisonment rates below 100 per 100,000 citizens. The Russian Federation had the highest imprisonment rate at 576.8 per 100,000 citizens. The analysis considered legislation trends or other measures that can directly influence the number of inmates in a country’s prisons, including the institution of pardons and conditional releases and regulations allowing certain inmates to complete their sentences in their private residences under supervision. Other practices and policies impacting prisoner numbers include the use of community service instead of incarceration in Iceland and statutes of limitations on imprisonment sentences for misdemeanor offenses in Greece. Russia released thousands of inmates in 2006 as a result of an act of amnesty and Sweden implemented the use of electronic monitoring as a substitute for short-term incarceration. The use of alternatives to incarceration indicates a general concern among European nations over prison overcrowding and a corresponding willingness to deal with the problem through legislative action. Tables, footnotes, endnotes