Rapporto del Consiglio d’Europa: Romania tra i sei paesi europei che affrontano un grave sovraffollamento carcerario

Romania continues to face significant prison overcrowding, according to the Council of Europe’s latest data, released on Friday, July 18. The 2024 Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations (SPACE I) show that Romania is among six countries in Europe with severe overcrowding, housing 116 inmates for every 100 available places.

The report, which covers data up to January 31, 2024, places Romania behind only Slovenia (134), Cyprus (132), France (124), and Italy (118) in terms of overcrowding severity, alongside Belgium (113).

Across Europe, 15 prison administrations in countries with populations over 500,000 reported more inmates than available places.

Despite this, Romania recorded one of the lowest proportions of pre-trial detainees in Europe, at just 13%, far below countries like Albania (58%) and Armenia (53%). The low percentage suggests that the country’s overcrowding problem stems primarily from sentenced inmates, not from prolonged detention during legal proceedings.

Romania has around half the inmates it did back in the early 2000s, so it’s not a high incarceration rate problem. Prisons have always been “overcrowded” if we consider the ECHR definition of overcrowding, which is less than 4 sqm in shared cells and less than 6 sqm in single cells.

Most Romanian prisons were built in the late 19th century / early 20th century, before human rights were even a thing. The only newish prison is Rahova, built in the 90s and that one is overcrowded as well.

Thing is, one new prison is being built, designed to hold 900 inmates at ECHR standards. However, the prison is projected to cost around 110 million Euros. At €120k per inmate, we’d would need to spend over 2 billion Euros to have all our inmates housed in what the ECHR considers humane conditions. I mean I’m sorry if I sound inconsiderate, but I don’t think a country such as Romania should invest that kind of money for the comfort of rapists and murderers. I think we still have a lot of shit to fix before we should focus on that:

1. Our road network is among the shittiest in the EU. We don’t have a single continuous motorway connecting the capital to any neighboring country, not even Bulgaria which is literally next door, there’s the Giurgiu – Russe bridge which looks like North Korea and they still charge a toll for a fucking two lane bridge. Many county and local roads have potholes so big they could instantly destroy your suspension.

2. Our rail network is so much worse it makes the road network look good.

3. Most hospitals look like horror movie sets

4. There are schools in some rural areas without functioning toilets

5. Public transit outside big cities is mostly shit.

So yeah, maybe fix those before we start focusing on prisons…