Only new prisons can solve overcrowding, says prison guards rep

Only building new prisons can solve the problem of overcrowding, the Pasydy union prison guards’ branch said on Friday, a day after the justice minister announced upgrades to central prisons meant to solve the issue.

Following a cabinet meeting, Justice Minister Anna Procopiou said that a two-fold project including upgrading existing facilities and then launching a study to construct a new wing at the Nicosia central prison will solve the problem of overcrowding.

However, on Friday, the union said that although the government’s attempts are positive, the solution to the problem is building new prisons.

Speaking to Alpha television, the deputy head of the union’s branch Costas Mouzouras, gave a thumbs up to the announcements regarding the upcoming changes that will decongest the penitentiary and directly address the serious problem of overcrowding.

However, regarding the building of the new wing as a way of completely solving the issue, Mouzouras said that the only way to solve the solution is to build new prisons and not just a wing.

However, he said that they will wait to meet with the minister to discuss the issue further.

Commenting on the need for changes, he said that the situation started to change drastically in 2000, when the number of inmates started rising, due to illegal migration, and an increase in the number of narcotics cases.

In his own 37-year career, he said that the situation in the prisons has changed significantly from the increase in crime.

He said: “In 1987, in the prison we had to manage 120 inmates, and now we have 1000.”

Among the many problems that will remain, even after the building conversions to alleviate the problem of overcrowding, is the serious issue of toilets since there are none in the cells of most wings, with the result that, as Mouzouras said, the prison guards during the night receive up to 300 calls to open cells for prisoners to use the common toilets.

On the issue of understaffing, the justice minister on Thursday announced 50 new prison guards will be hired.

Asked about this, Mouzouras said that now there are 294 permanent and 95 temporary prison guards in the penitentiary, a number that has remained the same for 15 years, even though the number of prisoners has doubled.

According to Mouzouras, to be able to respond to the increased numbers of inmates, the human resources of the prison should be strengthened by at least another 250 people.

Commenting on fire and earthquake safety, Mouzouras said that the protocols need to be updated, as they have not been changed since 2008.

Speaking about the works on Thursday, Procopiou 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.

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.