Romania moved 134 prisoners from prison before inspection by Council of Europe committee

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, a Council of Europe supervisory body known by the acronym CPT, published a report from its visit to Romania. The delegation was in the country from April 28 to May 9, 2025 and found that in the week before its arrival at the prison in Iași, 134 prisoners were transferred from there. The committee had announced this very prison a week earlier as one of two it wanted to visit. G4Media ↗

The committee added a comparison to that figure. Those 134 transfers took place between April 22 and May 1, that is over nine days. In the preceding seven weeks, from March 1 to April 21, 292 prisoners were transferred from the same prison. Furthermore, prisoners in both visited facilities told delegation members that the transfers and other improvements in conditions were made in anticipation of the inspection. G4Media ↗

Even after this preparation, the figures remained poor. In 34 Romanian prisons for adults, there were 23,555 people at the time of the visit with a capacity of 19,706 places, which is 119.5 percent occupancy. In Iași it reached 140 percent, in Botoșani 130 percent. Another 467 people were in four facilities for children and young adults and 628 in six prison hospitals. All four visited adult prisons were overcrowded. G4Media ↗

Per prisoner there were two to three square meters, although the committee considers four square meters a minimum. The delegation described frequent infestations with bedbugs and cockroaches, poorly maintained cells, inadequate furniture and worn bedding. In Iași it pointed out violence between prisoners. Allegations against staff concerned separate facilities for children and young adults — in the Craiova detention center it involved slaps and baton blows, in Târgu Ocna excessive use of force. In Târgu Ocna, the committee also identified frequent and serious violence among the inmates themselves, including sexual assaults. The delegation described conditions in police cells as appalling. Romania Insider ↗

Romania had significantly reduced the number of prisoners in the previous decade. In June 2014 it had 32,428 people in prisons and by January 2020 had reduced them to 20,570. Since then the number has been rising again and in 2025 was 24,778, about one-fifth higher than five years earlier. An action plan for 2020-2025 promised to modernize 946 places and create 7,849 new ones, including two new prisons, while a new program envisages 5,512 places by 2029. G4Media ↗

The same committee also visits Slovakia. It was last here from November 28 to December 8, 2023 and published the report in April 2025. It visited prisons in Žilina, Hrnčiarovce nad Parnou and Ružomberok, a facility in Hronovce, a detention facility for foreigners in Medveďov and psychiatric wards of two hospitals. According to it, the Slovak prison system as a whole was below official capacity, though conditions in some cells were cramped and the imprisonment rate remained, according to the committee, among the higher in Europe. In Ružomberok it received allegations of slaps, punches, kicks and blows with a telescopic baton, and accused persons in detention spent up to 23 hours a day in cells. Prevention of Torture ↗

Therefore, what stands out in the Romanian report is something other than overcrowding, which has been known about for years. It is that the committee recorded the transfers before the announced visit, compared them with the preceding period and also documented what the prisoners themselves told it. If it wanted to see conditions without preparation, it would not need to announce a specific prison in advance.

Photo: Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, headquarters of the Council of Europe. Author Council of Europe (architect of the building Henry Bernard), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Image is reduced.