Fair Trials has published a interesting major new report ( ‘A Measure of Last Resort? The practice of pre-trial detention decision-making in the EU’) showing the extent to which pre-trial detention is being used all over the EU without adequate justification.

Summary:

Within the European Union, there are over 120,000 people being detained in pre-trial detention. That’s more than 1 in 5 people held in prison that haven’t yet been found guilty of any crime.

In June 2014, Fair Trials set out to collect a unique evidence base about how pre-trial detention, or detention without trial, is being used in practice across the EU. In order to gain a realistic view of the problems in practice on which to develop targeted national and regional solutions, the project ‘The Practice of Pre-Trial Detention: Monitoring Alternatives and Judicial Decision-Making’ was conducted in partnership with organisations and academics from ten EU countries and has been funded by the EU Commission.

Now complete, the report brings together the findings from across the 10 jurisdictions, as well as a wider regional experts seminar, which involved over 50 participants from 24 EU Member States.

You can download keyfindings or the full report here.