Combating prison overcrowding and use of alternative sanctions and measures has been a challenging issue for the Eastern Partnership countries during last decade. In order to move effectively from punitive to rehabilitative execution of criminal sanctions, overcrowding of prisons must be addressed.

A 2-day working meeting, dedicated to discuss the draft model questionnaire for conducting a study on prison overcrowding in the Eastern Partnership countries, with participation of the representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Ukraine and a representative of the Ministry of Corrections of Georgia, as well as the staff of the Council of Europe office in Kyiv and the Council of Europe international consultants took place in Kyiv on 7-8 October 2015. During the meeting the final version of the model questionnaire was elaborated, methodology and communication strategy for conducting the study, as well as the deadlines for submission the filled questionnaires by the members of the working group was agreed.

Results of the study will be presented at the conference on 11-12 February 2016, to be held in Tbilisi.

The activity was organized within the framework of the EU/CoE PCF Regional Project “Promoting penitentiary reforms (from a punitive to a rehabilitative approach)”.