Within the year and very soon there will be an alleviation of the problem of overcrowding in prisons to a percentage of the order of 30%, the Minister of Justice and Public Order, Marios Hartsiotis, said on Friday, after the meeting he had with the President of the Democratic Party ( DIKO), Nikolas Papadopoulos, at the party's headquarters. During the meeting, among other things, the challenges of the Ministry of Justice, justice reform, immigration and the issue of prisons were discussed.
In his statements and asked to comment on information that prisoners are being transferred from one province to another due to overpopulation, Mr. Hartsiotis replied that "there is an overpopulation problem and that is a given and everyone knows it".
He noted that "there are immediate actions which will have results within the next few days", indicating that "on February 29 the new open prison within the existing block of the Central Prisons is completed, when there will be a relocation of a certain number of convicts or sub-trials".
At the same time, the Minister of Justice continued, the new Central Prisons building will be completed in September, which will be the reconstructed previous building of the open prison. He also said that within the year and very soon there will be an alleviation of the problem of overcrowding in prisons to a percentage of the order of 30%, which he said "is considered very important, under the difficult circumstances of today".
Mr. Hartsiotis mentioned that during the meeting he had the opportunity to develop the goals of the Christodoulidis Government in a wide range in the area of justice, the Police, prisons, immigration, etc. He indicated that it is not just about goals, but for already tangible results in the area of justice reform.
He noted that there will be tangible results within the year in terms of prison modernization. He referred in particular to the issue of alleviating prison overcrowding with the new building facilities, but more generally to the part of modernizing prisons and many other issues, saying that "some of these are related to public safety and cannot be announced."
Also, he continued, in the part of the Police, as has already been announced, within the year there will be a new reinforcement at the staff level in order for the Police to be able to cope with better results in all matters that concern its competence.
The Justice Minister said he had developed the Department's priorities into the "real, burning issues it has to deal with". He added that he had heard the proposals from DIKO, characterizing them as "really useful and very beneficial". He stated that the recommendations combined with the objectives, charts and actions from the Ministry of Justice will give even better results.
Mr. Hartsiotis thanked Mr. Papadopoulos for "the opinions, suggestions, positions but above all for the already expressed and future cooperation which I expect will be even stronger for the good of our country, our Cyprus ».
Mr. Papadopoulos stated that it was a very useful and constructive meeting with the Minister of Justice. "We had the opportunity to hear the challenges facing the specific Ministry, but also the prospect of solving various issues that directly concern society and the Cypriot State," he said.
He added that Cypriot citizens have the right to live with a sense of security and therefore the issues that have to do with dealing with organized crime, modernizing the prison system, dealing with immigration, even violence in stadiums, all these issues are priority issues that the Department of Justice should address and consider.
He noted that in this great effort DIKO will be fully supportive saying that "these issues concern us all". In addition, he continued, we believe that citizens have a right to access justice and this access must be both quick and fair.
Therefore, he said, "we want to see the justice reform implemented in practice" in order to improve and modernize these infrastructures that will give better access to Cypriot citizens.
"We conveyed to the Minister our own suggestions on how these infrastructures can be better improved, how we can better proceed with the modernization of our prisons and our penitentiary system, how alternative ways of adjudicating cases can be promoted, such as arbitration, mediation and much more," he said.
Speaking about the immigration issue, Mr. Papadopoulos stated that "we consider immigration to be an issue that should benefit from the effective treatment of the state with businesses that will deal with illegality and the improvement of the immigration guarding infrastructure, so that they are followed the correct deportation and return procedures for those illegal immigrants who are not entitled to remain in Cyprus.
Mr. Papadopoulos wished the Minister of Justice success in his work, noting that "as DIKO we assure him that we will stand by him in this difficult task he is undertaking".
Source: KYPE