Who’s behind the bars?

There are approximately 600 thousand detainees in the European Union, and figures are steadily increasing. Prisons across the EU are overcrowded, while detention conditions “vary considerably from one Member State to the next”. This being the case, some 20 MEPs presented a Written Declaration “on infringement of the fundamental rights of detainees in the European Union”.A Green Paper. The Declaration has already been signed by five MEPs: Françoise Castex, Jan Philipp Albrecht, Carlos Coelho, Stavros Lambrinidis, Diana Wallis, representing the major political groups in the Assembly. The initiative, which comes in view of the Commission’s plans to present a Green Paper on detention, calls for the assurance that fundamental rights of detainees are respected in all Member States, in accordance with the subsidiarity principle and to set up “minimum common standards of detention in the EU”, along with “effective and independent national mechanisms of control of prisons and detentions centres”. Moreover, MEPs “call on the Commission to ensure that “the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights act as a watchdog on possible infringements of the fundamental rights of detainees on a European level”. The Written Declaration has to be signed by 369 Members of the European Parliament until the 16th of May 2011, in order to be adopted as an official position of the House.Pan-European question. “Detention centres are experiencing major problems, that include surging suicide rates. Furthermore, an increasing number of ex-detainees repeat the crime after termination of sentence”. French MEP Françoise Castex is among the promoters of the Written Declaration. “5% of all prisoners are EU citizens that are not being detained in their home country. Can we be sure they being granted adequate treatment and the same rights they would enjoy in their home countries?”. British MEP Diana Wallis is the vice-President of the Euro-Chamber. She said: “My country has the largest number of prisoners. Problems are many, but detainees must be assured the respect of their own rights. Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis, co-Vice-President, recalls, “this is not merely a national issue, it involves the whole of Europe. It must be addressed at Community level”. “At a time when emphasis is placed on the respect of human rights – and justly so – we must ensure that these rights are respected also inside the prisons” of EU27.The data, country by country. Figures released by Eurostat regarding the period up to September 1 2010 induce reflection. Accordingly, there are over 83000 detainees in England and Wales (including those awaiting trial), over 7.800 in Scotland and 1500 in Northern Ireland (figures are rigorously differentiated). The survey shows there are 73thousand detainees in Germany and in Spain, 64 thousand in France, 58 thousand in Italy. The situation in Poland is serious, with 84.000 detainees. In other cases, figures regarding the percentage of detainees compared to the overall population are equally worrying: 26 thousand in Romania, 20 thousand in the Czech Republic, and just a few hundred in Luxembourg, Malta or Cyprus. Among EU candidate countries, Turkey has a special place, with 100thousand detainees. “It is necessary to raise public-awareness on this issue across Europe”, Lambrinidis said. “It is a real and true social and judicial emergence”. MEPs underline the various aspects of this phenomenon: overcrowding, suicide, abuse of power, increasing numbers of detainees remanded in custody, sky-rocketing numbers of extra-EU immigrants. Without overlooking the problem of women detainees, some of them mothers of infants. MEPs tackled also other aspects, such as the possibility of a redemption process and social integration after prison.A credibility test. “It is a credibility test for all of Europe”, underlined Portuguese MEP Carlos Coelho. “In Europe we used long-winded words on human rights in the world and Guantanamo while the situation of some detention centres in Europe is serious. The problem should not be tackled within national borders: when speaking of human rights there can be no boundaries”. Jan Philipp Albrecht, German MEP, added: “We must look beyond the situation of the prisons and envisage the harmonization of minimum penal legislative standards across the EU” focusing on questions regarding cross-border police cooperation, arrest and imprisonment and detainees’ rights during trial, especially when tried abroad.