Draft plans for a new central prison at Ayios Sozomenos, with room for at least 1,500 inmates, were presented to the House finance committee on Monday by Justice Minister Costas Fitiris, detailing four detention wings, a medical unit, education facilities as well as a football pitch.

The plans were shown along with the ministry’s 2027 budget, which sets aside €1 million for studies and preliminary work on the new prison.

A model presented to the committee places four detention wings, marked A, B, C and D, on either side of a central line of facilities.

These include the administration building and central management, a reception and visiting area, and spaces for education, workshops and rehabilitation programmes.

The design gives particular prominence to the medical unit and to a football pitch, which also serves as a sports ground, as well as providing for a Christian chapel and a Muslim prayer room.

For security, the draft includes a main entrance gate with checks, a perimeter security road, walls and watchtowers.

The justice ministry later clarified that the rendering, seemingly designed with the assistance of AI, was merely “an indicative illustration, which in no way constitutes the master plan of the project nor does it prejudge its final form or layout”.

Fitiris said the plans would be presented to affected municipalities so they could give their views, and that the aim was to find “the golden mean” for all parties.

He estimated construction would take between four to five years, with works due to begin by the end of next year; the project is expected to cost €300 million.

Ayios Sozomenos, an abandoned village near the buffer zone, became the likely site after the ministry dropped Mathiatis in September following significant pushback by its residents.

Fitiris said earlier this month that Mathiatis was put aside because of “the very high financial cost”, and that it lacks the necessary infrastructure for such an undertaking.

The municipalities of South Nicosia-Idalion and Latsia-Yeri objected at a meeting with ministry officials on October 6, arguing that the area is used for farming and was earlier designated for livestock.

The current central prison in Nicosia holds nearly 1,200 prisoners, with Eurostat figures showing an occupancy rate of 227.6 per cent, the highest in the EU.

Fitiris told the committee that only 35 of 90 advertised prison guard posts had been filled, and that recruitment would be opened to European candidates alongside incentives to attract staff.

He said annual spending on the prisons is at present €47 million and that he would return to the committee with the cost per prisoner.

He also reported that foreign nationals make up around 60 per cent of inmates.