A fresh report from the Council of Europe, released on Tuesday, paints a grim picture of prison conditions across the continent. Based on data from all 46 member states, the document shows that overcrowding has worsened, with nine countries now in a critical situation—up from six in the previous assessment.
Between January 2024 and January 2025, the average number of prisoners per 100 available places rose from 94.7 to 95.2. While this may seem marginal, the regional disparities are stark. Turkey and France top the list with 131 prisoners for every 100 places, followed by Croatia (123), Italy (121), Malta (118), Cyprus (117), Hungary (115), Belgium (114), and Ireland (112).
Five additional countries are operating above capacity and face what the report terms moderate overcrowding: Finland (110), Greece (108), Scotland (106), North Macedonia (104), and Sweden (103). Portugal, with an occupancy rate of 99%, sits just below the threshold but remains under significant pressure. The Council of Europe warns that any rate above 90% already signals high risk and operational strain.
Portugal's situation is particularly telling. Data from the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP) shows that by the end of 2025, the country's occupancy rate had climbed to 103.4%, marking a return to overcrowding for the first time in six years. The temporary relief brought by extraordinary releases during the COVID-19 pandemic has evaporated.
Long Sentences and Pre-Trial Detention
One of the most striking findings concerns the length of prison sentences. Portugal holds the unenviable record for the longest average sentence in Europe: 31.4 months, compared to a European average of just 9.7 months. As of January 2025, of the 9,645 convicted prisoners in Portugal, 3,741 were serving sentences of five to ten years, and 1,423 were serving terms of ten to twenty years. Another 1,423 were incarcerated for more than twenty years.
Vítor Ilharco, secretary-general of the Portuguese Association for Prisoner Support (APAR), argues that the country's penal culture is excessively punitive. “If our rules were applied as they are in the rest of Europe, we would not have more than 6,500 prisoners,” he told Euronews. He criticizes the reluctance to grant temporary release before the halfway point of a sentence, a practice common elsewhere.
Ilharco also points to the overuse of pre-trial detention. In Portugal, the average period in custody for prisoners who are later convicted is 57 days—more than double the European average of 21 days. “The solution is simple – you lock people up first and investigate later,” he says. This approach, he adds, is politically popular, especially among far-right parties. The Internal Security Annual Report (RASI) for 2025 confirms that over 3,000 of the country's 13,136 prisoners were in pre-trial detention.
The report also highlights a broader trend: the total prison population across the 46 member states reached 1,107,921 on 31 January 2025, an increase of 8.5% from the previous year. The average incarceration rate stands at 110 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants, but Eastern European countries continue to record much higher rates. Turkey leads with 458 per 100,000, followed by Azerbaijan (271), Moldova (245), and Georgia (232). Within the EU, Hungary (206), Poland (189), Czechia (178), and Slovakia (151) are the most punitive.
The proportion of women in prisons has risen slightly, from 4.8% to 5.2%, with Hungary (8.8%), Czechia (8.6%), Malta (8%), and Sweden (7.9%) seeing the largest increases among larger countries. Foreign nationals now make up 17% of the prison population, and the number of inmates over 65 is growing, though still modest overall.
Portugal and Italy share the highest average age of prisoners at 42, while Moldova (30), Sweden (34), France, Cyprus, and Denmark (35) have the youngest populations. The report underscores that overcrowding is not just a numbers game—it directly affects hygiene, medical care, and living conditions, as highlighted in our earlier coverage of inhumane conditions across EU prisons.
For Ilharco, the solution lies in reforming sentencing practices and expanding non-custodial measures. He proposes community work for minor offenses, such as driving without a license, rather than prison terms that can last one to two years. “The family will be torn apart,” he warns, calling for a more balanced approach that prioritizes rehabilitation over incarceration.
