Over 80,000 convicts in Poland are at large, instead of serving their term, mainly because prisons are overcrowded.
The number of convicts waiting to serve prison terms is almost 40,000 as there are simply not enough cells to keep them in. Polish jails have room for 83,000 prisoners but they already accommodate 85,000 convicts.
The situation will get worse in December when Poland introduces new EU regulations by which each prisoner will be guaranteed three square metres of space.
In order to avoid overloading prison cells, the Justice Ministry introduced alterations to the penal code, making it possible for the court to postpone prison sentences if there is no room in prisons and European standards cannot be met.
According to Eurostat, there are more prisoners in Poland than in any other EU member state. Out of 607,000 prisoners in the whole European Union 90,200 are jailed in Poland. (mg)
Source: Rzeczpospolita