Southeast Asia

Since 2000, the prison population in Southeast Asia has increased by 116% (compared to 36% across Asia and 24% globally). This has resulted in chronic levels of overcrowding in many countries, with occupancy rates over 200% in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.  

One of the primary causes of prison overcrowding is that imprisonment remains the default response to offending in many countries in the region, and also at the pre-trial stage. Punitive drug policies continue to drive imprisonment rates up. Drug laws in the region typically criminalise drug use or possession for personal use, with mandatory pre-trial detention, court backlogs and inadequate access to release mechanisms meaning people spend years on remand awaiting trial.