The prison guards’ union (Pasydy branch) on Wednesday refuted accusations after inmates in an open letter to President Nikos Christodoulides, decried the “deplorable” conditions in the country’s main prison.

“Nothing could be further from the truth as far as accusation of violence by staff against prisoners,” the guards’ union maintained in a statement, charging that the prisoners’ complaints were baseless.

Prisoners have access to legal advisors on a daily basis, and mechanisms are in place to ensure the investigation of incidents by independent agencies, that is, the commissioner for prisons, the prisons council and the CPT (EU anti-torture committee), they added.

The union went on to rubbish claims by the prisoners’ rights group that the touted new wing was not ready, that programmes had been discontinued, and that food portions had been reduced.

The conversion of the open prison to a closed one, with a capacity for 240 heads and the building of the new prison wing with a capacity for 360 had been welcomed, as the matter of overpopulation was indeed a valid one, the union also said.

The prisoners’ rights association had said the prison was marred by incidents of violence, overcrowding, poor and inadequate food provision, and the discontinuation of educational and correctional programmes.

The association also accused the authorities of posturing, misinformation and attempts to cover up the true extent of the island’s prison problem.

Referring to the new central prisons’ unit, which the president is set to inaugurate next week, the prisoners’ organisation claimed that reports of it being in a state of readiness were false.

“We don’t know what they are telling you but what [we] see is [that the] wing is not ready,” the prisoners’ association said in its statement, adding that the president was a “victim of misinformation” put out by the justice minister who had committed himself publicly to the claim.

“A show is being played at the prisoners’ expense,” the association continued. The true situation, it said, is that the prisons had deteriorated and being incarcerated currently “resembles a game of survival”.

Improvements in the wake of an EU warning had not been kept up and the state was not running a correctional facility in any true sense of the word, the prisoners’ group charged, and referring to an EU committee finding last May of abusive conditions and incidents of inmate deaths.

Since November 2022, at least five reports had surfaced of prisoners dying in the state facility including the high profile case of a Turkish Cypriot who was murdered while incarcerated. Two reports concerned prisoners suffering from chronic illness and dying after being transferred for medical care.

The prisoners’ rights organisation accused the state of having no prison policy, shutting down educational and training programmes and providing no activities or any “human approach” that could give prisoners the motivation to reform.

Incidents of violence and show of force by prison guards are daily occurrences, food had been reduced with the excuse of staff shortages, and inmates sleep on the floor or are housed four-at-a-time in a 2m by 2m cell, the prisoners said.

Last month Minister of Justice Marios Hartsiotis had gone on record saying the new prison wing boasting “state-of-the-art” facilities would slash prison overcrowding by 30 per cent.

The building designed with stringent security criteria and upgraded guard stations, had the capacity to house up to 240 inmates or convicts, Hartsiotis had told the CyBC.

About a third of the inmates in the older building, which had been built to house 600-650 but was housing 1000, would be transferred, the minister said.

Hartsiotis also announced on Tuesday that a residential and day-facility for juvenile offenders, would begin its operation in January, and would provide “reformative, educational, therapeutic and welfare” benefits.