The Ministry of Justice expects money from Brussels in order to upgrade the educational programs of the prisoners. In an interview the Minister of Justice Anna Koukkidou-Prokopiou stated the following:
"We are working towards the improvement of educational infrastructure, rehabilitation and reintegration programs for prisoners, within the guidelines we have discussed with the respective team of the Council of Europe, who was recently in Cyprus and who is interested in financing some of them"
As far as we can tell the Ministry is awaiting this money.
In the prisons educational programs offered are both of a technical nature (carpenters, etc.), as well as university and postgraduate level programs.
A Council of Europe delegation was in Cyprus last June and visited the Central Prisons. .We remind you that according to the Annual Criminal Statistics of the Council of Europe for 2022, overcrowding in prisons in Cyprus is the second highest in Europe. Regarding women, CoE statistics show that on 31 January 2022, Cyprus had the highest percentage of women in prisons at 9,5%, while ranking third in terms of the percentage of foreign prisoners with 52% (in countries with more than 1 million inhabitants).