Filenews 24 September 2023 - by Fanis Makrides
The plan announced by the Minister of Justice and Public Order, Anna Prokopiou-Koukkides, for the decongestion of the Central Prisons is in full swing.
Work is currently being carried out by the Department of Public Works in order to implement the first phase of planning with the ultimate goal of securing more than 200 new places for prisoners who have been sentenced to prison for serious offenses.
According to the relevant timetable, which has been finalized, the whole issue is expected to be settled in the summer of 2024. Already, according to what a competent officer of the Ministry told "F", a budget of 500,000 euros has been released (supplementary budget 2023) and the relevant construction works have begun.
The plan The plan to alleviate the capacity problem provides for the conversion of the Open Prison facilities into a wing of the Closed Prison. Open Prisons hold persons with prison sentences for offences that do not fall into the category of serious crimes. Although they have a capacity of 240 people, the prisoners in this facility are a few dozen.
These prisoners of the Open Prisons, therefore, will be transferred to the facilities of the Guidance Center for Extra-institutional Employment and Rehabilitation of Prisoners (KKEAK). The inmates of this Centre are cleared to work during the day and to return during the evening hours.
In the current facilities of KKEAAK, works are being carried out to convert them into an Open Prison area. The KKEAAC will be transferred to a new infrastructure. The implementation As a competent officer of the Ministry told us, "the procedures for the remodelling of the prison buildings have been launched and in particular the implementation of the project for the new KKEAAK has begun, which is scheduled to be completed in June 2024".
The same person said: "The transformation of the existing KKEAAK into an Open Prison is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023 and the conversion of the Open Prison into a Closed Prison is scheduled to be completed in August 2024." The relevant works have a total cost of 1,692,000 euros and, as we have already noted, 500,000 euros have been released. The rest of the money will be budgeted for 2024.
It should be noted that the possibility of constructing a new wing is being studied. This issue will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval. Prison guard positions As part of the remodelling of the prison premises, according to the Ministry, the creation of an additional 50 prison guard positions was approved.
The process of filling these posts will start with the adoption of the 2024 budget. Currently, there are 89 vacancies for permanent prison guards in the organization chart. For these positions, two separate requests have already been submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the Public Service Commission to promote the procedures for their filling. The promotion process has also been completed.
The first request concerned the procedures for filling 40 vacant prison guard posts. The process of filling them is in progress before the National Health Service and will be implemented through the list of successful candidates in the general written government examinations. For these positions, the Ministry was informed by the Public Service Commission that while 56 applications were initially submitted, only 32 showed interest.
Regarding the second request of the Ministry of Justice to fill the 49 vacancies that have resulted from the promotions to the position of chief jailer and inspector, they have not yet been announced and the matter will be put before the National Public Health Service for a decision. By the end of the year, it is estimated that all procedures for the establishment of a new list of Fixed-Term Prison Guards will be taken forward, which will apply from the adoption of the 2024 budget. The possibility of temporarily filling the posts with fixed-term staff will be examined if the vacancies are not successfully filled in the next notice.
