In its 2021 Report published on Thursday, the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) calls for a limit to be set on the number of inmates in each prison and for alternative measures to be promoted.
“Prison overcrowding... can result in a violation of human rights”, warns CPT President Alan Mitchell. “It puts all the prisoners, especially the most vulnerable, and the prison staff at risk and undermines efforts to reintegrate prisoners into society. Governments should ensure that inmates have sufficient space to live with dignity in”.
The CPT reiterates its standards concerning the minimum living space for a prisoner: at least 4 m2 in collective cells and 6 m2 in individual cells (not including the sanitary annexe).
The Committee also recommends community service or electronic monitoring systems, supplemented by probation officers and rehabilitation programmes. It calls on European governments to work with legislators, judges, prosecutors and prison and probation managers to tackle prison overcrowding in a concerted way.
The end of strict preventive measures against Covid-19 has led to an increase in the number of inmates in some countries, which could lead to more overcrowded prisons in the future, warns the CPT.
Link to the CPT's annual report: https://aeur.eu/f/1au (Original version in French Véronique Leblanc)