Prison overcrowding has grown worse in recent years

Overcrowding is a perennial problem at the central prison but has grown worse in recent years, the ombudswoman said on Tuesday after completing an investigation, and calling for immediate action to solve the problem.

The report by Maria Lottides covers the period 2020 to 2022, during which her office carried out more than a dozen unannounced visits to the prison complex in Nicosia, as well as holding interviews with prison management and inmates.

According to the dossier, as of September 27 this year the prisons held a total of 978 people, of which 894 were men and 84 women – vastly exceeding the facility’s capacity for 424 people.

“In relation to the problem of overpopulation, it has been my office’s longstanding view that this must be dealt with immediately and definitively, with coordinated action by all the relevant authorities,” Lottides said.

The inspections at the prisons found that despite improvements and upgrades, the ageing facilities are not up to par.

In several cases inmates have to share cells, as a result of which “on the one hand there is insufficient space per inmate based on international standards, and on the other hand dignified detention conditions are not guaranteed per the recommendations of the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture.”

In particular, the report draws attention to the overused practice of keeping inmates in solitary confinement for extended periods of time (typically 4+2 days) on the grounds of disciplinary infractions.

What is worrisome, the ombudswoman found, is that in a number of instances inmates are kept in solitary confinement (either in their own cell, or in a designated cell in each wing) while prison authorities review the alleged disciplinary infractions. Often, the review procedure is not even completed, but inmates are still subjected to this form of punishment.

“It is our position that the frequent use [of solitary confinement], whimsically and based not on a case-by-case basis, is problematic and needs to be reviewed by the Prisons Department.”

Elsewhere the dossier flags other shortcomings which impinge on inmates’ rights – such as denial of visitation privileges or rejection of parole applications while a disciplinary review is ongoing, even when such a review is never resolved.

On this point, prison authorities countered that in most cases, disciplinary review procedures remain unresolved because the inmates themselves fail to cooperate.

In other cases, people detained at the prisons pending trial are kept in the dark about the charges against them or when their day in court will come.

The ombudswoman recommends limiting the use of solitary confinement, both in frequency and duration. Instead of keeping inmates confined for days, this should be reduced to hours.

She also recommends segregating convicted felons from people being detained pending trial, as occurs in the women’s wing.

The dossier has been delivered to the justice minister, responsible for correctional facilities.

Its findings appear to contrast with the picture of a utopian prison depicted in a recently aired episode of the Netlix series Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons.