On Tuesday 20 May, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published an updated version of its online database on criminal detention.
This has been designed to support judges and legal professionals working on cross-border cases, by centralising national standards, legal texts, case law and monitoring reports relating to conditions of detention in the Member States of the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The tool also makes it possible to record a range of parameters relating to conditions of detention, such as cell size, hygiene, access to healthcare, food, video surveillance, protection against violence and time spent outside the cell.
It also endeavours to reflect the situation of specific groups (women, minors, foreigners, etc.) and vulnerable people.
The database includes more than 183 national court decisions and the latest case law from the European Courts.
It also provides direct access to reports from monitoring bodies on prison conditions.
Launched in 2019, this resource went hand in hand with the FRA’s report on conditions in penal detention (https://aeur.eu/f/gz7 ).
The database: https://aeur.eu/f/gz5 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)