CYPRUS PRISONS DEPARTMENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Cyprus Prison Department was for decates a dysfunctional branch of the government. Cyprus Prison is the only one Prison in the country . The prison establishments are located in the capital of Nicosia and hosts all different categories of offenders, in three types of prisons, the closed prison, the open prison, and the Reintegration and Guidance Center. Prison Population consists of juveniles, female inmates, pre-trial detainees, convicts (lifers and short-term prisoners).  _he fact that you have 610 men, women and (essentially) children all packed together in the same place, with nowhere else to go; you canÕt solve a problem by transferring difficult inmates to other prisons, as happens abroad. Cyprus Prison was a punitive place. Inmates tended the football pitch but werenÕt allowed to play football. The basketball hoops had been cut down. Prisoners only had hot water for a few hours at a time, and the power went out so they couldnÕt watch TV in their cells at night. They could only use the phone to talk to their families twice a week, for 10 minutes at a time. Food was both poor and rationed, actually weighed (to make sure it was the prescribed amount of milligrams) before being fed to the inmates.   Bad References were mainly highlighted in reports of the anti-torture committees of the Council of Europe and the United Nations.  Changing the old-fashion mentality and prison model that governed the prison department prior to 2015, was a real need.