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Prison: a five-star hotel?

Between myth and reality

Europe Material conditions Facilities Overcrowding Activities Social ties Work
Analysis
< image © Zoé Vermander.

What prison is not series (1)

Part of the world was forced into lockdown in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Going out was forbidden entirely or restricted to reasons deemed legitimate by the authorities. This first experience of the deprivation of liberty, which was unprecedented for many people, was not endured without some pain. Regardless of the creature comforts available, being deprived of the liberty of movement takes a toll. For many, this period was tinged with bitterness. When someone is confined to their home 24/7, even pleasant accommodations can begin to feel like a stifling cell.

Nevertheless, some correctional facilities in different countries have been described as being as comfortable as five-star hotels – in short, “too humane”. In 2018, most French people felt that incarcerated people were “treated too well”. In England and Wales, 49% of the population judged that prison had become so comfortable that incarcerated people preferred imprisonment to freedom. Some sources even considered certain prisons “luxurious”.

 So, are prisons actually luxury hotels? We go over myths about prisons with the fine-tooth comb of reality in the first instalment of our fact-checking series: what prison is not.

Three square metres corresponds to the interior of a city car: this is the space in which every incarcerated individual spends up to 23 hours per day.

Four walls and a few square metres

Since the 1990s, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has established strict standards concerning the minimum living space expected for each incarcerated individual: at least 4 m2 in shared cells and 6 m2 in individual cells, without counting sanitary facilities. These minimum rules are far from being respected in a great number of prisons, with extremely small cells increasingly being the rule rather than the exception in Europe. In Belgium, cells of 6 to 9 m2 are shared by three people each. In France, cells measuring 9 m2, designed to hold one person each, can hold up to four people. In Poland, the minimum space per person continues to be 3 m2, despite the CPT’s recommendations. Three square metres corresponds to the interior of a small city car: this is the space in which every incarcerated individual spends up to 23 hours per day, a space in which they sleep, eat, move around, and relieve themselves.

Beds are also in short supply: in March 2025 in France, 4,580 people slept on mattresses on the floor. This was also the case for 250 people in Belgium. The mattresses are sometimes placed right next to the sanitary area of the cell, with no partition. In other words, people sleep on the ground, pressed against the lavatory bowl.

The small size of the cells can be counterbalanced, depending on the facilities and the detention regimes, by access to showers, the exercise yard, visitation areas and common rooms – access that is strictly regulated and liable to be suspended. The European Court of Human Rights qualified these imprisonment conditions as inhuman and degrading treatment, leading in particular to condemnations of France and Portugal on two occasions.

Addiewell Prison in Scotland has been mocked for being “luxurious”, as in one article detailing the amenities at ten prisons around the world. However, the source fails to mention that at Addiewell, incarcerated people must choose between receiving medical treatment and eating their meals hot or breathing in some fresh air outside once a day.

Despite their reputations, prisons decidedly have nothing in common with a summertime postcard, with only bars, wire fences, and concrete to serve as scenery.

Although close contact and the absence of sanitary facilities are often deal-breakers when choosing a hotel, they are the norm in prison.

Given room and board – and exoneration?

“After lunch, I’m hungry in the afternoon. After dinner, I’m hungry at night. We’re hungry all the time!” says Robert, who is incarcerated in France. The food served by the prison service is often insufficient in terms of quantity, and bad, and is sometimes even served still frozen, as observed in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Ireland, dinner is served in the middle of the afternoon, and incarcerated people must then wait 16 hours until the next meal. The same is true in Belgium.

Incarcerated people must purchase food to avoid going hungry or being malnourished. Robert summarises the situation: “You either have money to buy yourself stuff or you’re starving.”

 Inflation is even more dramatic in prison, and prices soar. Certain products cost 10 to 15 times more than they did a few years ago in Belgium, Poland and the United Kingdom. In France, the price of coffee skyrocketed, rising 255%, due to a change of supplier in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Breakfast immediately tasted different.

Although close contact, lack of privacy and the absence of sanitary facilities are often deal-breakers when choosing a hotel, they are the norm in prison. The often-unobtainable luxury behind bars is to have a toilet, a shower, sometimes hot water. In many countries, including Belgium, Norway and Romania, the showers are communal and located outside of the cells, offering no privacy from the other incarcerated people or the guards. In Belgium, only two to three showers are allowed per week, and malfunctions, renovations or lack of personnel further restrict this access. Hot water is often rare: “It has been sixteen years now that I’ve been showering in cold water every morning whether it be summer or wintertime. And how many times have I showered in ice-cold water?” says one incarcerated individual in Italy.

 If showers are a luxury, so are toilets. They are not necessarily partitioned in Spain, and they are not fully partitioned in the Netherlands. In France, “there’s nothing separating the bathrooms, which are right next to the cooking area. It’s humiliating,” explains Ryan*1.

As such, incarcerated people must relieve themselves in front of other incarcerated people. In Norway, some security cells are equipped with squat toilets that must be flushed from outside by prison staff. Other cells do not have toilets at all, even in recently constructed buildings. The wait for communal toilets can be long. In Belgium, some incarcerated individuals relieve themselves in buckets that must be emptied every day. There is no running water in the cells.

In Georgia, the lack of natural light and ventilation in some cells causes health issues. Far from the gilding of upper-class hotels, the walls are instead decorated with mould, which invades the cells and communal showers, especially in the Netherlands, Portugal and Belgium.

Vermin also occupy the buildings. Rats, bedbugs and other nuisances are an integral part of the prisons in Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Romania.

Two to three square metres per person, no running water, no toilets or showers, a tiny window as the only view and the heavy burden of time, which is impossible to kill in the absence of activities or contact with loved ones. The idyllic image of luxury prisons takes a hit, replaced by one of indignity. No traveller, regardless of how tempting an all-inclusive offer might be, would agree to sleep in the presence of mould and rats.

  1. Names have been changed to ensure anonymity. ↩

Most everyday things – maintaining hygiene, having enough to eat, writing to friends and family, keeping busy – require financial resources.

Prison Insider compares access to work and working conditions for incarcerated individuals in 16 countries.

View our table

Time passes slowly, hours to kill

Life in prison generates daily stress, far removed from the relaxing break provided by a five-star hotel. The connection with loved ones becomes difficult to maintain, which contributes to the general anxiety caused by detention. “We get so stressed before our families come, out of fear that something might happen on the road. Then, when they leave, it’s very emotionally charged, and we’re sad”, says Adel*, who was incarcerated in France. Incarcerated people are all too often incarcerated far from their friends and loved ones, who do not have the means to make the trip to visit them. This is particularly true for women, who are incarcerated in a small number of facilities.

Visits are limited, if they occur at all. In Germany, incarcerated individuals are allowed two hours of visits per month, during which they can meet with loved ones in the visitation area. These moments can be trying, both for the incarcerated individuals and their relatives. “They saw the unsanitary conditions I was living in, with the stench of dead rats and damp, the dirt, the chewing gum stuck everywhere. And I saw the sadness in their eyes”, recounts Ryan*, who was previously incarcerated in France.

 When visits are impossible or forbidden, all that is left are phone calls and letters. In Portugal, calls are limited to about 20 minutes every day, and only 10 minutes in Italy. Their prices are exorbitant, often significantly higher than on the outside, especially in Spain, France and Poland.

This situation is in line with the rest of daily life in detention: expensive. Most everyday things – maintaining hygiene, having enough to eat, writing to friends and family, keeping busy – require financial resources.

Incarcerated people have little access to work, and even when they do, they are greatly underpaid. In France, they earn between 20% and 40% of minimum wage. In Spain, salaries range from €3.20 to €4.50 per hour (€200 to €300 per month, on average) for non-specialised work. This is significantly below the national minimum wage, which is set at €1,000 per month. In Germany, the hourly rate in prison varies from €1 to €3, compared with €12 on the job market in 2023. Norway and Portugal are no exception to the rule.

Not all work warrants a salary in prison: in Italy in 2022, around 22% of the people imprisoned in the country participated in the upkeep and operations of prisons without being compensated. They are nevertheless required to pay for their detention: around €120 per month. In Spain, overtime work often goes uncompensated. Labour laws only apply very partially in prison. As such, incarcerated individuals who work receive only partial social protection, or none at all. In France, there are serious shortcomings: no non-professional sick leave, no technical unemployment compensation, no paid leave. In Norway, the compensation of incarcerated individuals is not subject to social security contributions. In Germany, it does not contribute to the pension system.

In prison, there is very little to do, or nothing at all. Those inside are forbidden from using the Internet, have limited access to the fenced-in yard, the only place to get a breath of fresh air, and exercise using sports equipment that is often outdated, if it is provided at all. Nothing at all like the amenities of a weekend getaway. “Five minutes feels like an hour”, explains Raphael, incarcerated in France. In Norway, Johan Lothe, from the non-profit WayBack Oslo, deplores that incarcerated people are “isolated in single cells without access to a job or activities”. Many incarcerated individuals feel that recreational, sports and educational activities are insufficient. These activities, which are organised by associations that receive little or no compensation, are frequently suspended by the prison service. The waiting list to access the fitness centre is enough to discourage even the most determined.

Indignity is not a luxury

This brief look at the conditions in which incarcerated individuals are held is enough to demonstrate that any comparison to a five-star hotel is absurd – insulting, even. Unsanitary material conditions and close quarters; inability to address basic needs, such as hunger and health; distance from loved ones or even broken ties; very limited or non-existent access to training, work or other types of activities; exposure to violence and limited ability to protect and defend oneself… In addition to the deprivation of liberty, which would be enough to refute any comparison to a holiday, daily life in prison in no way resembles the experience in a hotel, much less a luxury hotel.

Overcrowding is a central factor in the undignified living conditions in prisons. This major issue severely worsens all aspects of life in detention in most European countries. So could overcrowding be solved simply by building new prisons? Read the next article in this series for the response.

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