Where’s my lawyer? Making legal assistance in pre-trial detention effective
EU’S PRE-TRIAL
DETENTION CRISIS
1 in 6 of all
prisoners in the EU
haven’t been found
guilty of any crime.
Over 100,000 people
in the EU are in
pre-trial detention.
€1.6bn
Only 1 in 3 arrest warrants
result in surrender: human
rights are a growing
reason for refusal.
Annual cost of
pre-trial detention
in the EU.
Percentage of prison population
who are pre-trial detainees
50%
45%
40%
“The EU is facing a longstanding crisis in prison
overcrowding. The excessive use
of pre-trial detention (which is
supposed to be a measure of last
resort) is fuelling this. The
decision to order pre-trial
detention carries grave and
wide-ranging consequences for
people who have not been
convicted of any offence. But,
to date, there is still no proposal
for EU legislation on pre-trial
detention.”
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
Sweden
Malta
Luxembourg
Italy
Greece
Denmark
Belgium
0%
Sources: Fair Trials, www.fairtrials.org
World Prison Brief, www.prisonstudies.org
European Parliamentary Research Service, www.europarl.europa.eu
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