Our View: Inmates’ clash with police raises questions over running of prison

Justice Minister, Stevi Drakou, acted as mediator between the police chief and the director of the Central Prisons on Monday after a dispute over a police search of a wing of the prisons on August 4. The minister intervened after the dispute hit the headlines last week, with different groups joining the fray, taking sides and offering their respective versions of what happened.

It was clear the incident strained relations between the prison and police command and necessitated the intervention of the minister as peacemaker. Both sides agreed the incident was isolated and that the police executed search warrants in the prisons in the past without any problems arising. It was also agreed that the practice followed in the past by the police should be put into a protocol of cooperation.

Was this necessary? We suspect this was a face-saving solution for the two sides, given the admission that search warrants had been executed in the past without any issues. The prisons director had been particularly critical of the police, for intending to carry out a search of the whole wing instead of specific prisoners. The search did not take place, because “the prisoners reacted to the intention of the police to have the entire wing searched and not specific detainees,” said an announcement issued by the Central Prisons.

It was as if the prisons director condoned the behaviour of the prisoners, or at least excused it, because of the police tactics. Had the search warrant issued by the court been restricted to searching specific detainees, or did it allow a search of the whole wing? If it were the latter the prison authorities’ reaction could not be justified. Were police going to negotiate with prisoners over whose cell should be searched. More absurdly, there were some seven prisoners waiting for the police outside their cells, the police association reported.

Inevitably, the so-called Association for the Protection of Prisoners, felt duty-bound to take a stand about the “militaristic invasion” by “the hooded police officers that refused to identify themselves to the prison authorities.” Could it be that the officers were hooded because they wanted to protect themselves and the safety of their families from possible revenge attacks by the detainees? Anything is possible, which is why the prison authorities should have avoided publicly criticising the police taking a stance that could have been easily interpreted as siding with the convicts.

In fact, the prison authorities should have carried out an investigation to establish why detainees were outside their cells when the police arrived to carry out the search for drugs and mobile phones. What was the role of the prison wardens in all this? We hope these questions were asked by the minister in Monday’s meeting, because the incident of August 4 was not what anyone expects from a properly run prison.