TIRANA, May 13 – Overcrowding, poor living conditions and allegations of abuse continue to remain a concern in Albanian prisons.
An annual report by the general prisons directorate shows overcrowding slightly dropped to 22 percent 2015, when some 5,882 inmates were reported doing time in the country’s 23 detention facilities.
What’s concerning is that almost half of the inmates, some 2,962, were awaiting trial, raising concerns over the efficiency of the implementation of alternative sentencing. Local NGOs report prisoners often sleep in shifts due to lack of beds in cells.
The tough nationwide campaigns on widespread electricity thefts and tax evasion also had an impact on prison overcrowding, increasing the number of people convicted of these offences by up to six times in 2015, according to an annual report by the General Prosecutor’s Office. Courts sentenced some 2,115 people for electricity thefts and 2015 others on tax evasion in 2015 following nationwide campaigns to tackled widespread power thefts and tax evasion.
Overcrowding is also having with the estimated monthly cost of euro 3.3 month with the daily cost ranging between Euro 12 to Euro 46 for inmates needing medical assistance.
An OSCE policy paper has recommended among other measures, a revision of the punitive approach, a re-classification of criminal offences, and increased use of alternatives to imprisonment.
“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,” Florian Raunig, the Head of the OSCE Presence in Albania, has said.
