Foreign inmate surge linked to prison overcrowding in Western Europe, Council of Europe report finds

 

"Prison administrations like Switzerland (72 percent), Greece (54 percent), Austria (53 percent), Catalonia (50 percent), and Germany (49 percent) report extremely high proportions of foreign inmates," the report noted

 

A new Council of Europe report has revealed mounting pressure on prison systems in Western Europe, where overcrowding is increasingly tied to the presence of large numbers of foreign nationals.

 

The 2024 SPACE I survey, which collects prison data from 51 prison administrations across 46 European countries, found that one in three European prison systems is now officially overcrowded, with Western countries bearing the brunt.

 

As of Jan. 31, 2024, the average prison population density in Europe stood at 92 inmates per 100 available places. However, the report notes that this average masks wide disparities. A total of 16 prison systems were operating above full capacity. Among the most overcrowded were Cyprus (166 inmates per 100 places), Romania (120), France (119), Belgium (115), and Italy (112).

 

🇩🇪 In many German states, half the prison population is now made up of foreigners.

🔺Germany spends €1.8 billion a year on its exploding foreign prison population, out of a total of €4.1 billion.

🔺Foreign national prisoners are mostly from Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan,… pic.twitter.com/XBA4XpV7UQ

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 9, 2024

  

While immigration is naturally not the sole cause of overcrowding, with each administration experiencing its own issues in relation to infrastructure and capacity, it draws a clear connection between overcrowding and high shares of foreign inmates, particularly in Western Europe.

 

“At one end of the spectrum, prison administrations like Switzerland (72 percent), Greece (54 percent), Austria (53 percent), Catalonia (50 percent), and Germany (49 percent) report extremely high proportions of foreign inmates. In contrast, several prison administrations in Eastern Europe — such as Romania (1.1 percent), the Republic of Moldova (1.3 percent), and Azerbaijan (2 percent) — register some of the lowest shares of foreign prisoners,” the report notes.

 

“This geographic pattern broadly mirrors European demographic shifts since the early 2000s: Western European countries have seen immigration-fuelled population growth, while Eastern European nations often face population decline through emigration.”

 

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