The increase in prison overcrowding in 2024 is “significant”, particularly in some Western European countries. This is according to the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which today expressed its concern in the context of the publication of its annual report. The recommendations to the States go in three directions: to take “resolute measures” to reduce overcrowding; to intervene to “eradicate informal prison hierarchy,”, which persists at various levels, especially in the prison systems of some countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine); to improve the treatment of patients held involuntarily in psychiatric institutions across Europe. In these cases, less pharmacotherapy and more psycho-social therapies would be necessary for the recovery of patients. On the issue of overcrowding, the chairman of the Committee, Alan Mitchell, insisted that it “completely undermines the functioning of prisons and potentially exposes individuals to inhuman and degrading treatment. It causes poorer living conditions, increased tension and violence, fewer purposeful activities and less preparation for prisoners to return to the community. Mr Mitchell strongly urged governments to “show political will to solve” the problem “by reforming criminal law policies and allocating adequate investment to prison and probation services”. The report is the result of 20 visits to as many countries and to 181 places of detention.