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.
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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.”
Across Europe as a whole, foreign nationals make up 25 percent of the prison population on average, but the median figure is only 16 percent, indicating a heavy skew toward certain Western jurisdictions. The Council of Europe report caveats this figure by noting that not all foreign prisoners are long-term immigrants but include asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, tourists, and individuals linked to cross-border criminal networks. Most prison data, however, does not distinguish between legal statuses.
The SPACE I findings strongly suggest that the overcrowding crisis in Western European prisons cannot be addressed without considering the role of immigration and foreign inmate populations. The efficiency of infrastructure cannot be guaranteed without knowing the number of individuals it must cater to, and prisons are no exception.
As the proportion of foreign nationals behind bars continues to rise in several countries, the pressure on infrastructure, staffing, and public services is set to intensify.
Several European nations are now exploring alternative measures to address overcrowding. Remix News reported last month how Sweden had struck a deal with Estonia to rent 600 prison places in the Baltic state to ease pressure on its domestic operation.
Some facilities in Sweden are operating at over 140 percent capacity following a spike in crime in recent years.
Italy, on the other hand, revealed this week it was exploring the early release of more than 10,000 prisoners as a response to severe overcrowding — an unprecedented move for the Meloni government, which has until now opposed any so-called “prison-emptying” measures.
“There are 10,105 inmates who, by law, could be serving their remaining sentence outside prison,” Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said in a statement, acknowledging that while this right is enshrined in law, it has not been respected in practice due to the lack of adequate housing and support structures for released inmates.
In May, the U.K. announced sweeping prison reforms that could see prisoners in England and Wales, including some serious offenders, eligible for release after serving just one-third of their sentence, subject to approval by the Parole Board.
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