According to the ministry's Directorate-General of Justice Policy (DGPJ), the increase “is not uniform”, given that the number of female inmates jumped 38.6% in the period, while the number of male inmates rose 17.5%.

The figures also show that there has been a slight increase in the proportion of inmates aged over 40, although the largest number of prisoners are still in the 25 to 39 age range.

The DGPJ notes that there was a slight reduction in the number of inmates with minimum schooling: in 2010 they accounted for 9.3% of the total and in 2016 the figure was 6.6%. The proportion of graduates more than doubled, from 1.2% in 2010 to 2.6% in 2016.

The statistics also show that the proportion of inmates who committed crimes involving drugs or violence fell, while those imprisoned for crimes against property or "anti-social" crimes such as corruption increased in number.