Unprecedented prison growth in post-revolutionary history

Between 2021 and 2023, Tunisia's prison population rose by more than 10,000 inmates, from 21,000 to 31,000 incarcerated, according to a LTDH report on prisons for 2022-2025. This sharp rise of almost 50% in two years far exceeds the historical averages observed since 2011. It marks a worrying turning point: prisons will become a central tool of social and political regulation in post-July 25, 2021 Tunisia.

This prison inflation is not the result of an explosion in violent crime, but of the growing use of preventive detention, the toughening of prosecutions for minor or "moral" offences, and the security instrumentalization of justice against opponents, the poor and minorities.

Chronic overcrowding and daily inhumanity

This sharp rise in the number of inmates has resulted in a structural worsening of prison overcrowding. The LTDH report points out that the occupancy rate has reached 150% to 200% in many prisons, with cells designed for 4 people sometimes housing 8 to 10.

This saturation leads to :

• Sleeping on the floor for lack of beds or mattresses,
• Widespread insalubrity, with blocked toilets, rare showers and the spread of skin diseases,
• Insufficient or even degraded food rations,
• Lack of access to medical care, exacerbated by the lack of qualified medical staff and the unavailability of medicines.

The punitive nature of prison is no longer that of deprivation of liberty, but that of permanent exposure to physical, psychological and social suffering.

The institutionalization of brutality and the trivialization of humiliation

Institutional violence is omnipresent: systematic strip searches, verbal assaults, beatings, collective punishments, pressure on families during visits. The report also documents several cases of suspicious deaths in custody, including five recorded between May 2024 and April 2025, without any serious investigation being undertaken. Judicial proceedings often stop at the opening of an investigation "against unknown persons", which is then closed, leaving families in ignorance and grief.

The use of prison is reinforced by a logic of deterrence through terror: showing that anything can happen, that arbitrariness is a constant and that suffering is a method of governance.

Chosen targets: the criminalization of the margins and dissident voices

The Tunisian prison system is also an instrument of systemic discrimination. The report highlights the particularly worrying situation of several categories:

• LGBTIQ+ people: at least 84 lawsuits were filed between September 2024 and February 2025 against people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. 51 people were detained in April 2025 under Article 230 of the Penal Code. Arrests are accompanied by violence, humiliation and psychological pressure.
• Incarcerated women are forced to wear sifsari in court, are subjected to degrading searches, and suffer specific forms of moral stigmatization.
• Young people from working-class neighborhoods are regularly targeted in security campaigns: mass arrests, prolonged preventive detention, disproportionate sentences. Their very geographical location or the way they dress makes them "suspects".
• Minors are sometimes detained with adults, in flagrant violation of Tunisia's international commitments.
• Sub-Saharan migrants, often undocumented, are exposed to illegal detention, discriminatory conditions and arbitrary refoulement.

Protective laws that have become dead letters

Tunisia has ratified the international conventions against torture and for the protection of detainees, enshrined the absolute prohibition of torture in its Constitution (Articles 23 and 25), and enacted advanced legislation (such as Law No. 5 of 2016 on safeguards during police custody).

But the gap between the law and prison reality continues to widen. Complaint mechanisms are ineffective, offending officers are rarely punished, and Article 125 of the Penal Code ("contempt of public officials") is frequently used to gag victims.

Towards a prison that mirrors authoritarian drift

Since the coup d'état of July 25, 2021, the executive has concentrated the levers of judicial, administrative and police control. In this context, prison has become one of the main tools of power: it embodies collective punishment, the symbolic eradication of opponents and the social house arrest of undesirables.

So the 10,000 prisoner increase in two years is no statistical accident: it's the product of a political vision where order is more important than justice, where discipline is more important than dignity.

Strong recommendations for a breakthrough, not touch-ups

Faced with this situation, the LTDH calls on :

• Effective application of alternative sentences (electronic bracelets, community service, probation),
• Urgent decongestion of the most overcrowded prisons,
• Reforming the prison healthcare system,
• Absolute respect for rights of access, information and defense,
• The effective independence of the Inspectorate General of Prisons,
• The repeal of article 230 of the Penal Code and the decriminalization of identities and sexualities.

Defending prisoners' rights

This report is a barometer of civil liberties. What is at stake in Tunisian prisons is the very possibility of a society based on the rule of law. Where human dignity is violated on a daily basis, no state can claim to be just or legitimate.

Behind every overcrowded cell, every stifled cry, every bruised body, there's a people we're trying to discipline through fear. Conversely, defending prisoners means defending society as a whole. It means demanding justice for all - not a prison for everyone.