European Structures for Control of Prison Administration

The role and impact of CPT are analysed in interaction with the other instruments for protection of prisoners’ rights of the Council of Europe: the European Court of Human Rights and the Recommendations by the Committee of Ministers. The analysis demonstrates a mutual normative reinforcement over the last twenty years between these judicial, political and monitoring levels. However, empirical data concerning the impact of this normative work are scarce. Such evaluation requires clear criteria for success or failure and systematic fieldwork. On the other hand, we should not limit such an exercise to a purely instrumental top-down approach to the ‘implementation’ of standards. The protection of human rights is a socio-political and cultural movement which extends far beyond the prison walls, but which is also only one of the movements affecting prisons in reality.