Greece plans to gradually release around 2,500 inmates in the coming weeks under an expanded electronic monitoring program aimed at easing pressure on its overcrowded prison system. The total number of prisoners currently exceeds official capacity by about 25 percent.
Those eligible for supervised release will include many pretrial detainees as well as offenders convicted of domestic violence related crimes.
Greece launches new electronic monitoring for inmates
A limited pilot scheme that previously tracked only ten to twenty released inmates, and recorded several violations, will be replaced by a nationwide system with far greater capacity and oversight.
The new platform has a budget of €7 million ($8.2 million) over two years and, in its first phase, will be able to track the real time movements of 500 to 700 individuals simultaneously through wearable electronic transmitters. Unlike the earlier program, inmates will no longer bear the cost of the monitoring equipment, as the state will fully fund the system.
Balancing decongestion and public safety
Crime prevention and corrections officials say their central challenge is to ensure that mass supervised releases do not trigger a new wave of violent incidents or widespread violations of monitoring conditions. The success of the initiative will depend on how reliably the technology detects breaches and how quickly authorities can intervene.
At the same time, security concerns persist. Despite the installation of communication blocking technology in some facilities, investigations have shown that criminal groups were still able to coordinate armed attacks from inside one or two prisons, highlighting the limits of current safeguards.
Parallel investment in new prisons
Alongside the release program, Greece is moving ahead with the construction of ten new correctional facilities with a total budget of €268 million ($317 million). Planned locations include Chalkida, Nea Anchialos, Corfu, Filiates, and the Voio region of Kozani.
Existing prisons are also being reinforced with upgraded electronic access control and systems designed to disable unauthorized mobile phone communications.
Greece invests in new prisons as inmate numbers surge
According to official data, Greek prisons currently hold 13,535 inmates while designed capacity stands at just 10,763.
Occupancy levels vary sharply between institutions. Some facilities operate below capacity, such as the agricultural prison of Tiryntha at 67.5 percent. Others face extreme overcrowding, including Komotini at 210.4 percent, the youth prison of Volos at 246.2 percent and Tripoli at 228.3 percent. The inmate population has climbed rapidly in recent years, rising from 11,484 on January 1, 2025 to today’s total of 13,535.
For comparison, overall prison occupancy rates in other European countries stand at around 118 percent in Italy, 123 percent in France, and 132 percent in Cyprus. Greece itself recorded occupancy rates of 119.34 percent in 2015 and 107.24 percent in 2019, underscoring how sharply overcrowding has intensified once again.
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