The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) regularly condemns Romania for inadequate detention conditions and inhuman treatment of prisoners (violation of article 3 of the Convention). Overcrowding remains an issue of serious concern.

Despite the reforms undertaken in 2014 with the entry into force of a new Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure as well as new laws on probation and custodial and non-custodial sentences, pre-trial detention is still being applied significantly and the average pre-trial detention length is still well above the European average. In 2015, the Council of Europe’s anti-torture Committee (CPT) expressed its concerns regarding theses issues.

2015 also saw the completion of the legislative process to designate the Romanian Ombudsman as National Prevention Mechanism.