Fiks Fare program tonight spoke with the Director of the Albanian Committee of Helsinki, Erida Skëndaj on the state of Albanian prison system, who stated that excessive detention is a concern of the penitentiary system and that the property guarantee measure should be applied in Albania as well.
“The bail, as a security measure, is used very little in Albania, in low percentages. The first is imprisonment, forced appearance and house arrest. Imprisonment is the most requested measure for the defendants, even when these persons do not present a significant social risk or are not accused of criminal offenses with a significant risk,” she says, adding that there are more people in custody are poor.
“We found in detention were mostly people with socio-economic problems, the poor. Our criminal justice system has created an unequal scheme, because if for these citizens, we have also found detainees for electricity theft. If they are required to be imprisoned, we have another category of people who have been accused of even more serious crimes, such as concealment or non-declaration of income, abuse of office, who have been investigated free, or with mild measures such as appearance or house arrest. This is an unequal scheme. Limitation of freedom should be the last exceptional measure”, asserts Skëndaj.
Meanwhile, the detainment for the poor has also brought flagrant incidents. In 2022, two detainees in Kamëz and Kavajë committed suicide after being escorted by the police. “We have seen very flagrant cases that went as far as self-sacrifice, due to the security measure. As is the case in Kamez in 2020, who was accused of stealing a wallet with a few banknotes. He was on social assistance, with mental health issues and then went as far as suicide in prison 313 in Tirana. The other case is of a young man at the police station in Kavajë”, adds Skendaj.
The People’s Advocate thinks that these people also had mental health problems, which should have been verified at the time of association. “We believe that they had other mental health problems, which should have been evaluated when they entered the police station,” says Ballanca.
VIPs and KAPOs in prison “suites”
Meanwhile, another problem within prisons is the differential treatment of prisoners. In 2023, the Ombudsman made an inspection in Durrës Prison, where he found that VIP prisoners had better facilities than others. They were standing in a sector where there was no shortage of cooking facilities or equipment, tables or anything else.
“They are people who are serving a sentence, I think that the penitentiary system should have one sector. We have asked for the general conditions to improve, we cannot say that they worsen, but we say that they improve not for everyone. And for this reason, we say that this disparity creates problems due to unequal treatment,” she says.
A similar problem was found in the Peqin Prison, where the last incident revealed that those convicted of serious crimes, or as they are known as “capos”, were treated differently from others. They had even invested in their rooms, redecorating, furnishing and everything else. There were many empty beds in the high security sector, while other sectors were overcrowded.
Millions of euros spent on prisons, but for overcrowding and humidity…
“If we go institution by institution, overcrowding has bigger problems. Why? Sectors are divided within prisons for convicts and remands. And there is more overcrowding in remands than in convict sectors. Where the best conditions should have been, which are the institutions that suffer mental health people, from a capacity of 198 people, we have 458. We have twice the capacity,” she says.
Although tens of millions of euros have been invested to build new prisons, or to maintain the existing ones, there are still bad conditions. “One of the worst prisons is the Mine Peza detention center, as is the detention building. The cells, even the exit to the ventilation where they exit to the terrace. Tepelena and Burreli are both problematic, especially Tepelena. We have recommended closure. In addition to being old, Tepelena is also overpopulated. Even the state judicial map has a problem, Tepelena would be closed but those from the district will be taken there and it is impossible to close it at the moment”, says Ballanca.
Meanwhile, Skëndaj adds that the infrastructure is what brings concerns of these citizens. “Several problematic prisons in Albania have been closed, such as Zaharia in Kruja, or other prisons recently. The prisons that have been found to have problems from an infrastructural point of view are Lushnja, Tepelena, Ali Demi, Burrel.”
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