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Corruption in prisons is a global issue that severely impacts the human rights of people in prison, and their families, and continues to undermine access to justice and penal reform efforts. Corruption varies in its form and extent but includes staff demanding petty bribes in exchange for providing basic needs to people in prison, contraband trafficking such as bringing in phones or drugs, and large-scale misappropriation of funds, sexual corruption and violence. While there is some recognition that corruption is a major challenge in running prisons effectively and protecting the human rights of those detained, it remains a pervasive problem in all regions – particularly where there is overcrowding.
Prison staff are often at the centre of allegations of corruption, particularly in contexts where overcrowding and poor detention conditions are a reality. A 2023 report detailed how in Pakistan wealthy people in prison have access to healthy food and reportedly a small number are even permitted to serve their prison term in private hospitals, while bribes must be paid by those who are poorer to obtain basic medicine like painkillers.
Where organised crime groups are dominant, or have shared or self-governance of prisons, corruption is widespread. In Guatemala, for example, corrupt prison staff collaborate with people in prison to form gangs that effectively control the prisons, and there are reports that senior prison officials are also involved through networks of bribery and influence-peddling. In Chile, over half of the prison staff recently surveyed reported knowledge of corrupt acts by colleagues (63%) and illegal activities conducted by prison staff with people in prison (57.8%), showing high levels of impunity. In Mauritania, investigations into prison staff collaborating with drug traffickers highlighted severe corruption issues in the country’s prisons. With nearly half of the prison population in prison for drug-related crimes, corruption is fuelled by the substantial profits of the drug trade, allowing traffickers to continue their operations inside prison with the complicity of some staff.
There have been some efforts to investigate and prosecute officials alleged of corruption, but in some cases, there are indications such efforts are perfunctory, or are insufficient, especially where it is pervasive.
In North Macedonia, the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture reported their longstanding concerns at the impacts of ‘endemic corruption’, particularly in one prison, affecting ‘every aspect of prison life due to the wide range of services on offer, the striking and diverse cases of passive and active corruption observed, and its infiltration into the modus operandi of staff’. While there had been some measures implemented to tackle this, they had not brought the expected results, not least because it involved senior staff.
A police investigation in one of New Zealand’s largest prisons has led to multiple corruption charges but has reportedly also failed to eliminate the problem. In Indonesia, 15 employees were arrested in March 2024 by the country’s corruption watchdog for allegations involving extorting detainees between 2019 and 2023 which involved being paid to offer a reduction in the period of solitary confinement upon entry to detention centres as well as information on when inspections would be scheduled so contraband could be hidden.
In the UK, since 2020, 161 prison staff have been arrested for supplying drugs to people in prison, with a notable rise in arrests from 34 in 2020 to 47 in 2023. Investigations into drug smuggling by prison staff surged by 162% over four years, reaching 435 in 2023, while overall staff investigations grew by 160%, totalling 720 last year. In Scotland, a prison officer was sentenced to six years and three months in prison for smuggling drugs and mobile phones, following an investigation prompted by the increasing presence of drugs in cells. There are also cases of staff being dismissed, like in the Netherlands when 160 staff were fired between 2020 and 2023 for integrity breaches, including bribery.
Beyond such individual accountability cases, anti-corruption strategies and efforts to tackle corruption in detention facilities are increasingly on the agenda of governments as well as prison administrations. For instance, the Cyprus Prisons Department has announced plans to modernise its correctional system to reduce overcrowding and address corruption, with a strong commitment to zero tolerance and measures underway to combat corruption. In Colombia, the Penitentiary Institute, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, has launched a campaign called ‘Súmate, Soy Transparente’ (‘Join the campaign, I am accountable’) aimed at prison staff nationwide to combat corruption in prisons.
A new guide for detention monitors published in 2024 by Penal Reform International and the U4 AntiCorruption Resource Centre on corruption aims at supporting detention monitors. With their unique access to prisons, to assess and document evidence of corruption, the guide seeks to build the monitors’ capacity and knowledge so they can contribute to anti-corruption measures in prisons.
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