The Greek prison system is facing serious overcrowding with a capacity of 122.9 percent, with 13,583 prisoners housed in facilities designed for 10,763 people, according to data from the Greek General Secretariat for Crime Policy, cited by the online edition of the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini“, BTA reported.
The number of people in Greek prisons has increased by nearly a third in the last decade without a corresponding expansion of infrastructure, the Greek publication notes.
Two cases of tuberculosis at the Kasavetia prison have highlighted the health risks of overcrowding and poor ventilation. Some facilities are over 200 percent of their capacity, including Tripoli prison (at 226 percent).
Law professor Costas Cosmatos attributes the increase in convictions to so-called “low-risk“ crimes, subject to the 2024 Penal Code. “The increase in the number of prisoners is not a phenomenon that arises on its own, but is essentially “constructed“ from the chain of the criminal mechanism“, he said.
Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Yannis Lambropoulos noted that similar levels of prison overcrowding are found in Italy (118 percent), France (123 percent) and Cyprus (132 percent), and said that the credit for this was due to the success of the Greek police in dismantling over 140 criminal organizations and arresting 700 people.