In its annual report for 2025 the Council of Europe's Committee for the prevention of torture (CPT), while acknowledging progress in certain areas in recent years, has highlighted worrying signs on the treatment and living conditions of individuals in detention in Europe. The issues include the re-emergence of ill-treatment in certain countries, a problem of impunity of police ill-treatment and prison overcrowding. It consequently calls on governments to improve conditions in prisons and take further action to prevent police ill-treatment.
The report provides an overview of persistent and emerging challenges in the management of detention in Europe, including police stations, prisons, immigration detention centres, and mental-health and social-care establishments. It draws attention to trends observed during the CPT's country visits and to long-standing, unimplemented CPT recommendations.
Risk of normalisation of overcrowding in prisons in Europe
The CPT regrets that overcrowded prisons risk becoming the norm in several prison systems across Europe following a continued increase in the prison population since the Covid-19 pandemic, affecting, in particular, individuals in pre-trial detention. The committee underlines that overcrowding not only undermines the functioning of prisons and potentially exposes individuals to inhuman and degrading treatment, but it also favours criminal activities within the prison, corrodes staff-prison relations and increases the risk of violence, tension and deterioration of mental health for both prisoners and staff.
The committee emphasises that overcrowding can be addressed through multifaceted approaches, including reviewing sentencing policies, promoting alternatives to detention, and introducing a strict limit on the number of prisoners each prison can hold. In this context, the renewed willingness of governments in recent years to externalise detention to other countries will be followed with attention.
CPT President Alan Mitchell said: "While the CPT has observed many good practices during its visits to places of detention, important gaps persist. Ill-treatment has re-emerged in places where there had been progress in combating it. The effectiveness of some oversight mechanisms has diminished, and a sense of impunity of abusive actions pervades. In some states, loss of institutional control in prisons combined with strained infrastructure is creating conditions leading to weaker safeguards, and the risk that harmful practices resurface.
"Overcrowding, as well as insufficient staffing and lack of appropriate staff training, are undermining the proper operation of prisons as well as the reintegration of prisoners to the community. Governments should show political will and take resolute measures to eradicate prison overcrowding and ensure respect for the human dignity of individuals in detention, including appropriate regime, care and living conditions," he added.
In the report, the committee also expresses concern about the pre-trial and high-security regimes. In several countries, remand prisoners are often confined to their cells for more than 22 hours a day, in a situation that can last for months, which can be particularly harmful. The CPT recognises the challenges posed by organised crime groups but still stresses the need to ensure appropriate safeguards and oversight to prevent high security regimes from resulting in de facto solitary confinement and excessive restrictions.
Enhanced professionalism in law enforcement
As regards police establishments, the CPT has witnessed an improvement in the professionalisation of law-enforcement staff. The number of allegations of physical ill-treatment by police officers is decreasing, in particular during the interviews of criminal subjects. Ill-treatment now occurs mostly at the time of arrest and during informal questioning. To address this problem, the CPT recommends that governments place special emphasis on training law-enforcement officers in interview methods and apply a zero-tolerance policy toward violence.
The report points out that accountability and the fight against impunity remain significant challenges. The CPT advocates the use of visible identification by law-enforcement officers, the establishment of robust complaint mechanisms, and the use of CCTV and body-worn cameras as preventive tools.
Concerns about alleged migration "pushbacks"
During its visits to immigration detention centres, the CPT continues to find serious shortcomings, including overcrowding, unsuitable premises and poor material conditions. The report expresses serious concern about the treatment of migrants in vulnerable situations, such as children and mothers with infants, for whom alternatives to detention should be found. The committee remains also concerned about the credible allegations of so-called "pushbacks", whereby individuals apprehended by security forces are summarily and forcibly returned across land or sea borders, sometimes involving severe physical violence.
In its monitoring of mental-health establishments the CPT has observed many good practices. However, significant challenges remain, often linked to a shortage of healthcare staff, including issues such as consent to treatment and the use of practices such as seclusion and mechanical or chemical restraint, which would require much more rigorous oversight and accountability.
In November 2025, the CPT adopted an update to its standard on healthcare services in prisons, and will publish a new standard on social-care homes in 2026.
More generally, in 2025, the CPT carried out 22 visits in 20 countries. It visited 182 places of detention, including 74 prisons, 69 police stations, 17 psychiatric hospitals, 11 immigration detention centres and ten social care institutions.
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The European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CPT) visits places of detention in the states parties to the European Convention for the prevention of torture to assess how persons deprived of their liberty are treated with a view to strengthening, if necessary, the protection of such persons from torture and from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. These places include prisons, detention centres for children, police stations, immigration detention centres, psychiatric hospitals, and social care homes. After each visit, the CPT transmits a report containing its findings and recommendations to the government concerned.
Read the CPT annual report in full
