-7The findings of the CPT’s November/December 2021 visit to Greece demonstrate once again that the overarching problems of persistent overcrowding in totally inappropriate material conditions and chronic shortage of staff continue to compound the many additional shortcomings in the prisons visited, such as an impoverished regime, inadequate health care and continued high levels of interprisoner violence and intimidation.4 9. The CPT has taken note that the current Greek Government entered office in July 2019 and that it inherited a chronic crisis in the prison system. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, these issues are not new and there has been a repeated failure to address the systemic needs of the prison system by successive governments. There continues to be a lack of forward planning whereby the resources required to operate a prison system capable of accommodating 12,000 persons (currently) in decent conditions with a clearly defined pathway to reintegrate back into the community are allocated. It is a policy choice of the Greek Government to promote a penal policy with sentences that are much longer than in other European countries (see paragraph 16). The criminal law reform of June 2019 and subsequent amendments to the Criminal Code was an opportunity to promote the decriminalisation or downgrading of a number of offences, to reduce sentence lengths, and to promote non-custodial measures and sanctions as main sentences. The consequences of these reforms will become evident in due course. The emphasis of the authorities since July 2019 has been to restore a semblance of order within prisons, notably Korydallos Men’s Prison, and to promote the building of new prison establishments both to increase capacity and to close certain older facilities. 10. In the report on its 2019 visit to Greece, the CPT once again urged the Greek authorities to take concrete action to tackle the two overarching problems of persistent overcrowding and chronic shortage of staff in the prisons and to implement the recommendations on prison matters made in its previous visit reports. The Committee emphasised that if no progress was made or achieved towards this end, it might well consider setting in motion the procedure provided for in Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Convention.5 The findings of the CPT’s 2021 visit demonstrate that, for almost a decade, no tangible progress has been made to address the Committee’s very serious concerns under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights as outlined once again in this report and that there is little evidence to indicate that the situation will improve in the near future. Consequently, the CPT has decided to set in motion the procedure provided for in Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Convention. In the Concluding remarks to this report, the Committee reiterates its fundamental concerns, and that urgent action is required to address them. It hopes that decisive action by the Greek authorities to implement the CPT’s recommendations will render the issuing of a public statement unnecessary and that the constructive dialogue and cooperation developed over the years can be enhanced in addressing the Committee’s concerns and, more specifically, the critical state of prisons in Greece. 4 5 See also the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers’ Deputies decision on the supervision of the execution of the Nisiotis group of cases against Greece of 10 March 2022. These cases concern inhuman and/or degrading treatment of the applicants on account of the poor conditions of detention in Greek prisons between 2008 and 2018 and where the European Court of Human Rights found violations of Article 3. Further, it should be noted that as of March 2022, some 727 applications concerning prison conditions are pending before the European Court of Human Rights. Article 10, paragraph 2, reads as follows: “If the Party fails to co-operate or refuses to improve the situation in the light of the Committee's recommendations, the Committee may decide, after the Party has had an opportunity to make known its views, by a majority of two-thirds of its members to make a public statement on the matter.”