In its annual report, the CPT expresses serious concern about the significant increase in prison overcrowding in 2024, particularly in some Western European countries, and urges governments to address it with resolute measures. Prison overcrowding completely undermines the functioning of prisons and potentially exposes individuals to inhuman and degrading treatment. It causes poorer living conditions, increased tension and violence, and a reduction in purposeful activities and preparation for prisoners’ return to the community.
Moreover, the Committee underlines the need to improve the treatment of patients held involuntarily in psychiatric institutions across Europe, notably around consent to treatment and restrictive practices, such as seclusion and mechanical or chemical restraint.
Together with the annual report, the CPT publishes its new standard on informal prison hierarchy, a phenomenon based on a caste system inherited from Tsarist Russia, which continues to exist in nine countries formerly part of the Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine). An informal system of prisoner self-governance persists to varying degrees, creating the informal prisoner hierarchy by dividing prisoners into categories or castes and the existence of an informal prisoner code. Prisoners are usually divided into three categories: the top prisoners, the middle caste and the lowest caste or “untouchables”, who are stigmatised, segregated and assigned menial jobs, and who are often subject to intimidation and violence. The situation of prisoners belonging to the lowest caste can be considered to constitute inhuman or degrading treatment.
On the basis of its visits over the last 35 years and an in-depth analysis of the problem, the Committee makes specific recommendations to eradicate this phenomenon, in particular to protect vulnerable prisoners at risk of violence and exploitation, and to prevent the leaders of these hierarchies from continuing their criminal practices in prison. In this context, an essential measure is the phasing out of large dormitories, which facilitate the development, maintenance and cohesion of criminal organisation structures, increasing the risk of intimidation and violence. The CPT also recommends that the governments concerned reform their criminal law policies and allocate adequate investment to prison and probation services.
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