Prisons Responding to Overcrowding – Migration, Human Smuggling and THB

• In Event: Balkan Criminology: Punishment and Prisons and their Alternatives

Abstract

In Croatia at the start of 2024 a total of 651 human smugglers had been held in prison, most of them detained and not (yet) convicted. Migration, human smuggling and trafficking in human beings (THB) have been a chronic challenge for all the Balkan states throughout the past two decades, but the situation has never been as dramatic as now. The challenge prisons face in terms of overcrowding due to the migration crisis in Croatia is the same as in Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Serbia, Romania, Italy and many other European states. The question the presentation will address is how prison administrations deal with said challenge? Some states have started to drastically increase conditional and early release from prisons or to postpone imprisonment for convicted persons that are not (yet) incarcerated, thereby essentially trying to ‘make room’ for the growing number of foreigners. All prisons struggle with translation and daily practical aspects, with no harmonised or coordinated solution in sight. The presentation aims to foster a discussion on strategic approaches to tackle the challenge of prison overcrowding in light of the migration crisis.

Author

• Anna-Maria Getoš Kalac, University of Zagreb Faculty of Law