Government to upgrade and expand prison facilities to address overcrowding

Upgrading existing facilities and adding a new wing to the prison will solve the problem of overcrowding, Justice Minister Anna Procopiou said on Thursday, after a cabinet meeting.

She said: “Overcrowding in prisons is a chronic problem which we will try to solve immediately with the cooperation of the transport ministry, which has also assisted in cost estimation of the projects but has also set it as the highest priority of the public works department, which will undertake the completion of the works.”

Commenting on the works, she said that the first phase of the project includes the upgrading of existing facilities, while the second phase will be the construction of the new wing.

She added that the cabinet has approved the second phase of the project and agreed to start the studies into creating a new wing.

Responding to a question about the timetable for upgrading the building facilities in the prison, the minister said that the first phase concerning the upgrading of the existing facilities hopes to be completed in a year, without this being final because it is currently under study by the department of public works.

Regarding the second part, which is the preparation of the studies for the new wing, she said that she cannot determine a timetable.

She emphasised that the priority is the preparation of the study and then the approval of the finance ministry will be needed to include the implementation in the programme of the transport ministry.

Procopiou added that with the completion of the first phase, 220 beds will be added to the prisons, while the ministry has already received approval for the recruitment of fifty new prison guards, because, as she pointed out, an upgrade to a security wing cannot be made if there is no necessary staff.

The minister said that the final plan is to create a prison with the capacity for 1,200 people, which will cover the needs of the Republic of Cyprus in the long term.

She added that currently 939 people are housed in prisons while the numbers vary between 950 and 1,050 people.

In response to a question whether the plan to build new prisons outside the city has been abandoned, Procopiou replied that the ministry has found the previous plans but the land is no longer available as it was then and there is currently no space to implement that plan.

She pointed out that the cost of the building alone, based on that plan, was €120 million plus VAT ten years ago and now the cost, ten years later, has already increased, while there is not even land available.

The minister added that an immediate solution must be found, and this is precisely the restructuring of the prison area and at the same time the preparation of a study for the construction of a new wing in the prisons.