Overcrowding in prisons
Archive theme
Overcrowding is measured by setting the people held in an institution against its official capacity. Once the ratio passes certain thresholds everything else gets worse: the space in the cells, access to healthcare, work, visits, supervision. Italy has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights on precisely this.
Hands Off Cain documents the conditions of prisons through direct visits, and publishes the reports of them. This page collects the news on overcrowding.
Latest news
MARCH 18, 2026IranDEATH PENALTYIRAN - IHR Report on Alarming Prison Conditions
- MAY 13, 2025IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ’S JUSTICE MINISTER SAYS PRISONS ARE AT DOUBLE CAPACITY AS AMNESTY LAW TAKES EFFECT
As a general amnesty law takes effect in Iraq, the country’s prisons are facing a crisis of overcrowding, housing more than double their intended capacity, the country’s justice minister said in an interview on May 3, 2025.
- MAY 22, 2023ZimbabweDEATH PENALTY
ZIMBABWE RELEASES PRISONERS IN AMNESTY, REDUCING OVERCROWDING
Zimbabwe has begun releasing more than 4,000 prisoners under a presidential amnesty that authorities say will help ease congestion in some overcrowded jails.
NOVEMBER 21, 2020United StatesDEATH PENALTYUSA - 1,450 inmates and 98 agents died of Covid-19 in US prisons.
USA - 1,450 inmates and 98 agents died of Covid-19 in US prisons.
- MARCH 21, 2018IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ: MORE THAN 3,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR ALLEGED TERROR LINKS
Iraq has detained or imprisoned at least 19,000 people accused of connections to the Islamic State group or other terror-related offenses, and sentenced more than 3,000 of them to death, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
- OCTOBER 10, 2016GhanaDEATH PENALTY
GHANA'S PRISONS OVERCROWDED BY 3,810 INMATES
Ghana's 43 prisons are designed to accommodate 9,875 prisoners but are currently holding 13,685 prisoners.
- JULY 16, 2015ZambiaDEATH PENALTY
ZAMBIA: PRESIDENT EDGAR LUNGU GIVES DEATH ROW INMATES LIFE SENTENCES
Zambia's President Edgar Lungu reduced the sentence of 332 prisoners awaiting death by hanging to life imprisonment to ease maximum security prison congestion.
- NOVEMBER 21, 2014ItalyDEATH PENALTY
DELEGATION OF RADICALS IN NIGER VISITS THE PRISONS OF NIAMEY AND KOLLO
The delegation of the Radical Party and Hands Off Cain that was in Niger for institutional meetings
FEBRUARY 2, 2013ZimbabweDEATH PENALTYZIMBABWE: 76 INMATES ON DEATH ROW
Seventy-six inmates, two of them female, are languishing in prison in Zimbabwe awaiting execution.
- AUGUST 4, 2009CaliforniaDEATH PENALTY
USA - California. Three federal judges ordered the California prison system to reduce its inmate population
USA - California. Three federal judges ordered the California prison system to reduce its inmate population
- APRIL 27, 2001ZambiaDEATH PENALTY
Reacting to press reports that death row prisoners...
Reacting to press reports that death row prisoners choked Kabwe's Mukobeko Maximum Prison, Fr