The Council of Europe calls for alternatives to detention

The Council of Europe today called for a “maximum” number of prisoners in each prison and for alternatives to detention to address the “persistent prison overcrowding” in European countries.

“Overcrowding in prisons” puts all detainees at risk, as well as prison staff, and jeopardizes efforts to reintegrate them, “said Alan Mitchell, chairman of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). report of this body of the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe proposes to “set an absolute ceiling” on the number of prisoners in each prison, respecting a “minimum living space” of 4 square meters in group cells and 6 square meters in individual cells.

In some of the institutions visited by the Commission, “living space was less than 2 square meters per person” for an enclosure of 23 hours per day, creating a field “suitable for the escalation of tensions”, the authors of the report point out.

The Committee for the Prevention of Torture emphasizes the need to develop alternatives to imprisonment, such as work of general interest or electronic monitoring systems, in addition to “rehabilitation programs”.

“The use of non-custodial measures remains restricted in many states, especially in the pre-trial phase,” the report said, adding that it regretted that.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

You may also like