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Lidovky.cz

Czech prisons at ‘critical’ capacity

  5:34

With over 23,200 people doing time in Czech prisons, overcrowding remains a serious problem, with inmates housed in makeshift cells

Over 30 Belarusian opposition leaders are reportedly still in jail foto: © ReutersČeská pozice

There are now an estimated 23,200 inmates in Czech prisons — several thousand more than the official number of beds available — leading authorities to create temporary cells out of office space, storage rooms and lounges, the online edition of Czech weekly Týden reported Monday.

While acknowledging the overcrowding, Deputy Justice Minister Daniel Volák said “there is no threat of rioting or collapse.” However, according to European Union regulations, each inmate must have a minimum of three square meters of living space, a threshold that Czech institutions have passed.

In the Czech Republic there are nearly 200 inmates for every 100,000 people — twice as many as in neighboring countries like Germany and Austria; in the European Union, only the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) have a greater proportion of its population behind bars.

Attempts to reduce the prison population through alternative sentencing – chiefly house arrest – have not much on an impact, Týden said, in large part because there is no electronic bracelet system in place to track convicts’ movements.

According to the Czech Helsinki Committee, many people who receive alternative sentences, in particular repeat offenders, fail to honor the conditions (such as requirements to perform community service) and are then sent to prison.

Total number of prisonners (as of July 27, 2011)

 

Female

Male

Adults

1 485

21 491

Juveniles

11

180

Inmates*

1

12

Total

23 180

Source: Prison Service of the Czech Republic. *At detention facilities.

Autor:
Témata: Česko, Helsinky

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