JUSTICE minister Ionas Nicolaou briefed the House Legal and Human Rights committees on Wednesday on “measures taken following research and careful study, based on information obtained from the prison.”
In the four-hour session, described by DISY MP Rikkos Mappourides as “tumultuous”, Nicolaou defended the ministry’s record in addressing issues relating to the penitentiary institution, and reported a “prevailing culture of cover-ups and improper investigation” among prison staff, which the government finds “completely unacceptable.”
The minister described specific instances of gross misconduct by prison staff, which subsequently went unpunished and uninvestigated. One striking incident was the case of convict Andreas Onoufriou, who was found, while incarcerated, in possession of special blue paper used in issuing police warrants, as well as government stamps which allowed him to “issue warrants from within the prison.”
After this episode was exposed, Nicolaou said, “no one was punished and no investigation was carried out by the prison’s management.” The government, he declared, “will no longer stand for the inaction that has brought us to this point.”
The minister went on to list the actions taken thus far under a “strategic plan” formulated over the summer of 2013, following communication with then-acting prison governor Giorgos Tryfonides. Measures include reinstating the Release Board, converting two prison wings into a health centre, improving regulation of visiting hours of solicitors with their clients, extending meal times after 4am, establishing a regulation-reform team, issuing instructions to discontinue group punishments like obligatory haircuts and shaving, securing better and larger food portions at 40 per cent lower cost, resolving issues of personal hygiene like the provision of hot water, heating and air-conditioning, and facilitating better communication of inmates with their families.
Further, in an effort to decongest the overcrowded institution, Nicolaou revealed that the government is looking into granting pardons to foreign minor offenders who are willing to depart for their home countries immediately. Also, where extradition treaties exist, convicts may be presented with the option of being transferred to their country to serve the remainder of their sentence.
The minister also unveiled updated government plans to build a new prison that can accommodate 1,200 inmates in 300 single and 450 double cells in a space of 26,000 square metres, at a cost of €100m, down from an initial estimated cost €200m. According to Nicolaou, the government will soon be inviting tenders for the construction of the new prisons.
Asked to comment on Tryfonides’s claim that he did not, in fact, request that he be transferred back to the police force, the minister said that Tryfonides “made the request verbally during Sunday’s meeting”, and pledged to submit it in writing as well.
In the matter of possible disciplinary or other action against Tryfonides, the minister denied the existence of evidence thus far but assured the House that if investigation produces “evidence warranting disciplinary procedures”, these will be started.
Responding to criticism from MPs on the presence of the MMAD riot squad, Nicolaou said it was “a temporary necessity, to perform checks.”
MMAD head Savvas Christou said that in multiple meetings held on Tuesday, both at the prison and the Justice ministry, several decisions were made, with more to come. Among them, he said, is to “immediately start training all prison personnel, from officers to guards, at the Police Academy, engaging a number of lecturers.”
Christou added that the University of Cyprus has already expressed its eagerness to assist with the training.
The MMAD commander said that although he deemed the squad’s presence at the prison “basically unnecessary” due to the initial tension having gradually been alleviated, it will nonetheless remain stationed there until the situation is “fully normalised.”
“Despite some negativity and initial shock amongst inmates at our presence, with appropriate handling by ourselves and the cooperation of prison personnel and the inmates, we are now hardly noticeable,” Christou concluded.
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