Czech Prisons Past Capacity
The tales of cramped conditions reveal a system under strain. Taxi driver Olga, 27, frequently hears grim stories of what goes on behind the gates at Příbram prison when she shuttles visitors and the occasional ex-convict between the prison and the town center about 15 minutes away. Reported in the Prague Post.
Visiting families frequently complain, especially in winter, of having to stand outside for an hour or more to see their loved ones because the prison lacks space for a waiting room, she said.
“The visit system is really bad. You often see families with kids waiting outside in the cold,” said Olga, who requested that her last name be withheld.
Worse, from one former inmate, she heard stories of prisoners swallowing razorblades and lighter fluid in the hope of being transferred to a different prison, or, at least, to a less crowded cell.
Overcrowding has become a critical problem for the country’s
prisons, prompting Justice Minister Daniela Kovářová to warn that the system cannot handle the burden if immediate measures aren’t taken to alleviate the situation.
“All prisons where convicts serve their sentences are on the brink of being overcrowded,” Kovářová told reporters earlier this month. “If we do nothing now, the prison system could collapse.”
Of the 26 prisons throughout the country, Příbram is considered one of the most overcrowded, at 130 percent capacity, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Veronika Ludvíková said. On average, prisons nationwide are at 115 percent capacity.
During a recent visit to Příbram, prison authorities refused to allow reporters access to the most congested buildings and prison grounds, giving only a highly censored glimpse of the more spacious and sanitized, minimum-security area. Reporters were also prohibited from speaking to inmates, and digital photos taken during the visit were deleted under orders by prison officials.
“Because it’s really overcrowded, we can’t bring you to the dangerous prison area,” Příbram prison spokeswoman Jana Havelková said. Yet, contradicting the potential threat to reporters’ safety, she denied that guards were struggling to handle the excessive number of inmates.
“For this prison, there is no big problem,” she said. “We’re not worried [about the prison's overcapacity]. We believe the system we have is good enough” to quell any problems.
A handful of inmates wearing gray sweatsuits wandered leisurely around the minimally guarded area just beyond the prison entrance. The rest of the prison’s population, however, was kept unseen behind a high concrete wall and barbed wire within the high-security zone.
Despite Havelková’s assurance that Příbram’s prison population was under control, information from the Prison Service of the Czech Republic (VSČR), which administers the country’s prisons, suggested otherwise.
According to VSČR data, Příbram’s current inmate population is 1,051, exceeding the official capacity of 800 people.
By law, each inmate is required to have a minimum of four square meters of living space – a requirement the VSČR said it’s now impossible for state prisons to meet.
In July, the country’s prison system was handling about 22,000 convicted felons, up from 20,226 a year ago. The Justice Ministry attributed the rise to an increase in crime, new legislative amendments that have made it impossible for convicts to avoid actual prison sentences and a lack of alternative punishments.
VSČR spokeswoman Markéta Prunerová noted that the influx has made it increasingly difficult for prisons to focus on the rehabilitation of convicted criminals.
“We are worried that, with overcrowded prisons, we are almost missing the point of criminals being sentenced,” Prunerová said. “The point is to work with prisoners so that they are less dangerous to society.”
She added that prisons’ leisure rooms were being transformed into accommodation for inmates to handle the increase.
“This may result in more stress and aggression among prisoners, as they have fewer opportunities to burn their energy,” she said, noting the VSČR had recorded a rise in suicide attempts and aggression toward guards. So far this year, 44 suicide attempts have been recorded, compared with 68 attempts in 2008.
To cope with the overcrowding, the Justice Ministry plans to construct new accommodation facilities in existing prisons, and to create a partly privatized prison to house 500 in Rapotice near Brno, although that plan is currently being held up by funding issues related to the financial crisis, Ludvíková said.
In the meantime, she said, the ministry hopes to soon introduce alternative punishments to imprisonment, including home detention.
“We need to take more examples from modern democracies and more effectively use other punishment alternatives that include community work, fines or [banning convicts from certain activities],” she said
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