The known indicators on the evolution of the prison population show that Portugal has had high rates of imprisonment, overcrowding and long-term prison sentences when compared to the European average. The penal reforms of the last two decades have had some effect, but have not structurally reduced either the volume of the prison population or the length of time spent in prison. This pressure on the prison system, which increased at the end of the last century, has a strong impact on its functional performance and conditions the reforms aimed at it. It is essential to debate penal responses to the structure of crime and the conditions, in law and in practice, for making prison sentences more flexible.

Conceição Gomes, Coordinator OPJ/CES - UC
Fernando Eduardo Batista Conde Monteiro, Director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice degree programme - UMinho
Fernando Andrade, Sentence Execution Judge - Coimbra
José Manuel Pureza, Professor at FEUC, former member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees
Marina Henriques (moderator), OPJ/CES researcher at UC
 

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Organisers
Permanent Observatory for Justice / Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra 
Email: opj@ces.uc.pt | Tel: (+351) 239 855 570 / (+351) 914 140 187