The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) today expressed serious concern about the significant increase in prison overcrowding in 2024, particularly in some Western European countries, and urged governments to address it with resolute measures. It also called on several states to eradicate informal prison hierarchy, which has persisted to varying degrees in their prison systems since they were part of the Soviet Union.
Moreover, the Committee underlined the need to improve the treatment of patients held involuntarily in psychiatric institutions across Europe. Although it has observed many good practices during its country visits, significant challenges remain, notably around consent to treatment and restrictive practices such as seclusion and mechanical or chemical restraint. In the CPT´s view, too much emphasis is placed on pharmacotherapy and too little on psycho-social therapies, which are essential for the recovery of patients and their reintegration into the community.
In its annual report for 2024, the CPT presents an overview of its work to prevent torture and ill-treatment in places of detention across Europe.
CPT President Alan Mitchell said: "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, fewer purposeful activities and less preparation for prisoners to return to the community. Governments should show political will to solve it by reforming criminal law policies and allocating adequate investment to prison and probation services".
Together with the annual report, the CPT publishes a new standard that provides an in-depth analysis of the problem of informal prisoner hierarchy and makes specific recommendations to eradicate it. During its country visits over the last 35 years, the Committee has found that an informal prison hierarchy continued to exist in nine countries which were formerly part of the Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine).
The Committee considers that it is essential for prison administrations to challenge the existence of informal prison hierarchies 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.
"The power and influence of the informal prison hierarchy is slowly decreasing in some of the countries, but it still poses a serious risk to prisoners' human rights and the effective management of prisons. While some countries have made progress by building new prisons without large dormitories and engaging sufficient staff, others appear to have resigned themselves to letting informal prison hierarchy flourish", stated the CPT president.
Informal prison hierarchy became a deliberate policy of the Soviet Union prison system to manage a very high prison population, although its origins can be traced back to Tsarist Russia. Its spread was facilitated by the housing of prisoners in large-capacity dormitories. The informal system of prisoner self-governance that emerged created the informal prisoner hierarchy by dividing prisoners into categories or castes and by 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 often subject to intimidation and violence.
In several reports, the CPT has advocated phasing out large dormitories as they facilitate the development, maintenance and cohesion of criminal organisation structures, increasing the risk of intimidation and violence. It has also expressed the view that the situation of prisoners belonging to the lowest caste could be considered inhuman or degrading treatment. In two recent judgments addressing the treatment afforded to inmates of the lowest castes, the European Court of Human Rights found that there was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which prohibits all forms of inhuman or degrading treatment.
More generally, in 2024, the CPT carried out 20 visits (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Türkiye). It visited 181 places of detention, including 58 prisons, 75 police stations, 18 psychiatric hospitals, 14 immigration detention centres and four 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.
