Project dates: 1/9/2014 – 15/07/15

Target prisons: Porto-Novo, Lokossa, Abomey-Calavi

Prison statistics in September 2014 :

On 1/9/2014, prison overcrowding was running at 203.71% in civil prisons in Benin. Prisoners in pre-trial detention accounted for an average of 65% of the prison population, and as much as 85% in some of the prisons covered. Porto-Novo, for example, had 867 inmates, 484 of them awaiting trial (55%), for a design capacity of 250. Lokossa housed 577 inmates, 393 of them awaiting trial (68%), for a capacity of 200.

47 persons received instruction on legal safeguards (officials of the judicial and prison administrations and members of civil society).

Results in 2015 :

On 10 September 2015, 49 cases of abusive pre-trial detention were identified and 38 inmates awaiting trial were released provisionally or finally, representing a rate of 77% of court decisions obtained.

This project received support from the United Nations OPCAT Special Fund, the Federal Republic of Germany and Tavola-Valdese.