The main objective of the visit was to re-examine the treatment and conditions of detention of persons held in prison in Moldova. To this end, the CPT returned to visit Prison no. 6 in Soroca and Prison no. 15 in Cricova, and visited for the first time Prison no. 2 in Lipcani.
The CPT notes the progress achieved by the Moldovan authorities in certain areas. For example, an agreement has been concluded with the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to build a new prison in Chișinău, with part of the funding secured in a loan from the Council of Europe Development Bank. The quality of food provided in prisons has improved following the approval of a new norm, as has the recording and reporting of injuries. The report also notes positively that the CPT delegation received no allegations of physical ill-treatment of prisoners by staff in any of the three establishments visited in 2025.
However, long-standing recommendations by the CPT concerning the informal prisoner hierarchy and the resulting inter-prisoner violence and intimidation, remain largely unimplemented. Many prisoners in all three establishments visited once again described an overall atmosphere of intimidation and violence used by the informal prisoner hierarchy to impose their rules on other persons held in prison.
The situation of persons considered to be “humiliated” or “untouchable”, that is, those in the lowest caste of the informal prisoner hierarchy, remains a matter of serious concern to the CPT. The delegation once again received many complaints of frequent verbal abuse, systematically demeaning and dehumanising behaviour of other prisoners, threats of physical violence if they failed to follow the informal “code of conduct”, and even actual physical violence. The CPT considers that the situation of those persons in the lowest caste of the informal prisoner hierarchy could be considered to constitute a continuing violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In the CPT’s view, this unsatisfactory situation in prisons is directly linked to a number of factors; most notably, the chronic shortage of custodial staff, the de facto relinquishment of authority and control over the prison population to informal prison leaders, and the existence of large capacity dormitories and/or freely accessible unlocked rooms in interconnected sectors. At the same time, the plan of the Moldovan authorities to introduce a new, progressive system of enforcement of imprisonment sentences remains unimplemented, and there is still no proper risk and needs assessment of persons upon their admission to prison, nor a classification of persons to identify the prison, block or cell into which they should be placed.
In light of these findings, the Committee once again calls upon the Moldovan authorities to take resolute action, without further delay, to tackle the phenomenon of informal prisoner hierarchy and to prevent inter-prisoner violence and intimidation throughout the prison system. While the CPT notes positively that the authorities adopted a SAFE Roadmap to Europeanisation of Moldovan Prisons, concrete steps to effectively implement it are now required.
The Committee once again observed striking differences in material conditions and an unequal distribution of prisoners, a situation closely linked with the phenomenon of informal prisoner hierarchy. While material conditions in the three establishments visited remained very poor for most prisoners, including poor state of repair and serious overcrowding, informal prison leaders and their close circles were residing in spacious, well-equipped rooms or even apartments consisting of several rooms. The Moldovan authorities must ensure that persons held in prison are evenly distributed throughout the available accommodation, that they are all treated equally and benefit from similar material conditions, and that every person held in a multiple‑occupancy cell/dormitory is provided with at least 4 m2 of living space.
The report has been made public under the automatic publication procedure introduced by the Moldovan authorities.
