TIRANA, Dec. 15 – Authorities must address prison overcrowding through an increase of effective alternatives to imprisonment for lighter crimes, an expert working group urged Albanian decision-makers this week.
Albania is facing increasing problems with overcrowding in prisons and in pre-trial facilities, as the confined population has continuously increased since 2012, reaching its most critical level in 2014. Currently, prisons in Albania have about 18 percent more offenders than they can properly hold.
In a policy paper, the expert group recommends, among other measures, a revision of the punitive approach, a re-classification of criminal offenses, and increased use of alternatives to imprisonment.
“I would emphasize that deprivation of liberty should be a measure of last resort. It should only be applied where the seriousness of the offense would make any other measure clearly inadequate,” said Ambassador Florian Raunig, the head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, the international organization that funded the paper and led the working group.
He added that the significant growth of the overall prison population presents a major challenge to the prison administration and to the criminal justice system as a whole, both in terms of human rights of those detained and for the efficient management of penal institutions.
Human rights activists unrelated to the working group have long complained that the government’s reforms aiming to end power theft and tax evasion have had an effect in the increase in imprisonment numbers.
They also say that while the rich and well-connected get preferential treatment, Albanian courts have a tendency to give the harshest sentences to the poorest and most vulnerable Albanians for crimes like small-time theft or people caught with tiny amounts of drugs intended for personal use.
General Director of Prisons Artur Zoto said he welcomed the recommendations of the OSCE paper and Justice Minister Ylli Manjani said that the paper’s recommendations will become part of his working agenda.
The working group that prepared the policy paper was set up and chaired by the OSCE Presence in Albania upon the request of the General Directorate of Prisons. It was composed of representatives from the Presence, the General Directorate and the European Union Twinning Project on the Penitentiary System and the Probation Service in Albania.
The OSCE Presence has supported the establishment and the work of the Probation Service in Albania since 2009. The number of offenders on probation has continuously increased, from 705 in the first year to 18,250 in 2015.
