In a critical phase for the prison system of Cyprus, a team of the Committee against Torture of the Council of Europe, (CPT), is visiting the Central Prisons again today, in order to diagnose the situation, listen and prepare a report.
It is the second visit of the Commission to Cyprus in a year, as one of its delegations had also come in April 2025 and in December of the same year had prepared a report with very negative findings on what is happening in the wards and cells.
The Ministry of Justice and Public Order and Minister Kostas Fytiris are racing to improve the situation, however, overcrowding and problems with staff do not help to change the picture. The announcement of the creation of new prisons, despite the initial optimism it brought, however, will not bring immediate solutions, since we will be talking about new buildings in seven years and more.
However, the procedures for the recruitment of 90 new prison guards have progressed, as well as the procedures for the recruitment of a Prison Director, so that someone can take over permanently and institutionally and lead the prisons into a new era. At the moment, there are "patches" due to lack of space, despite efforts to find new spaces to distribute the prisoners to other detention centers. The effort being made is to separate the detention centers in Mennogeia and turn them into a Juvenile Prison and a place of detention for other types of convicts. The expansion of the institution of electronic surveillance of prisoners is also being promoted.
The situation with 1,200 prisoners inside the closed and open prison and in addition to more than 200 other prisoners-undertrials in police cells, give an image of an overloaded prison, which is why training, correction and rehabilitation programs cannot be carried out.
On the other hand, there is also the staff who justifiably shout about the suffocating situation, the lack of prison guards and at the same time, the Minister of Justice who asks for overcoming from everyone "and those who are constantly complaining, but I also have my own complaints".
As Mr. Fytiris stated yesterday, speaking to ANT1, he is pleased with the majority of the prison guards, but stressed that there is a small category of staff members who are also the "favourites" in their own ways, who often express complaints and suggestions that they themselves do not meet in their duties. "Enough of the excuses and demands that do not express realities."
It is noted that the CPT team will also visit police detention centers and wherever else it deems that there are people under arrest.
Regarding the construction of new prisons, it is parenthetically mentioned that a delegation of the Development Bank of the Council of Europe recently had a meeting with the Minister of Justice, during which the current situation in the Central Prisons, the needs of the prison system and the next steps for the preparation of the project were examined.
Particular emphasis was placed on the initial feasibility study, the definition of technical and operational requirements, as well as the process of ensuring specialized technical and advisory support.
The Council of Europe Development Bank is expected to play an essential role in the technical preparation of the project, providing guidance and know-how, based on its experience in such projects. As pointed out by Mr. Fytiris, despite the measures taken to decongest the prisons and implement alternative ways of serving sentences, the existing facilities cannot meet the requirements, both due to their age and due to the restrictions created by their location in the urban fabric of Nicosia.
