Royal College of Nursing (RCN) representatives joined trade unions from 10 European countries today at a demonstration in Brussels to protest at prison overcrowding.

The prison population in England and Wales has soared to a record 82,000, while Europe’s total prison population has reached more than 600,000. Two thirds of prisons in England and Wales are overcrowded, a situation unions blame for disruption to re-offending programmes, increased deaths in custody and compromises to human dignity, with prisoners forced to share single cells. Read more