Filenews 21 March 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
Tragic is the situation that prevails in recent days in the wings of the Central Prisons and especially in the one where women prisoners live. Due to overcrowding and lack of beds, female prisoners are forced to sleep on the floor.
The shocking images that one sees on the women's wing, apart from being unprecedented, do not honour our country, which is currently the first in the EU in terms of overcrowding. According to information from relatives of prisoners, the problem has been exacerbated by increased admissions to prisons of women from African countries who are sentenced to imprisonment for trying to travel outside Cyprus with documents belonging to others. At the moment, 90 women are being held in the Central Prisons, 65 of whom come from Congo and have been sentenced to between five and 10 months for offences that could be punishable by an administrative fine, as is the case in other countries in Europe.
Due to this situation, the cells of the female wing of the prisons have been filled, as a result of which the management is forced to put mattresses on the floor and some inmates sleep there. The situation is described as unacceptable and as conveyed to us by relatives of prisoners, it is not excluded that in the next few days layers will also be placed in the corridors of the wing, not only inside the cells. We are also informed that the mattresses that the prisons had at their disposal as reserves have been exhausted, due in general to the problem of overcrowding, and as a result they are going out on tenders for the supply of new ones.
From lawyers representing prisoners, we have been told that with the situation that now prevails in the prisons, there is certainly a violation of human rights, but also of the recommendations of the Committee against Torture of the Council of Europe (CPT) that strictly prohibits prisoners from sleeping on the floor.
The situation with the wings of the male prisoners also seems hopeless, since sanitary facilities in a ward have been converted into a room where prisoners sleep. Also, the sanitary facilities that were renovated last year, need immediate renovation due to overuse, as a result of overcrowding. As we have also been told, cells where one or two prisoners had to sleep, now three are sleeping and the next stage, if the imprisonment of illegal aliens continues, is, as they have been told, to close the prison theatre and turn it into a ward.
It should be noted that in other European countries, administrative measures are taken against foreigners who commit offences related to immigration, and not criminal ones.
