Overcrowded And Overstretched: Europe’s Prison Systems Face Growing Strain

France and Turkey have the highest levels of prison overcrowding among Council of Europe member states, with 131 inmates for every 100 places, a specially commissioned report said Tuesday.

These figures, compiled by the University of Lausanne for the 46-member Strasbourg-based body, date back to early 2025.

Since then, the French authorities have provided more recent and even more alarming numbers, with prison overcrowding estimated at 139.1 percent in April 2026.

Of the 51 prison administrations that supplied data (some countries, such as Spain, Britain and Bosnia, report by region), 14 have more prisoners than available places.

In third place comes Croatia (123 inmates for every 100 places), Italy (121), Malta (118), Cyprus (117), Hungary (115), Belgium (114) and Ireland (112).

The better performers include Ukraine at 50, Spain at 77 and Germany at 80.

The countries that incarcerate the most are Turkey (458 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants), Azerbaijan (271) and Moldova (245).

Among EU member states, they include Hungary (206), Poland (189) and the Czech Republic (178).

Overall, as of 31 January 2025, there were just over 1.1 million inmates across all the countries studied, an 8.5 percent year-on-year increase.

The proportion of women prisoners rose from 4.8 percent to 5.2 percent between January 2024 and January 2025, it said.
-AFP