Mental patients in prisons

30/01/2014 00:00

One has to travel for more than 30 minutes into hard terrain for
approaching the Zaharia prison near Kruja, where several inmates are
kept against the law, since court has ordered them to receive obligatory
medical treatment.

The Zaharia prison staff tries to avoid cameras from filming the humidity and the sick people who live inside. The doors are closed everyday, due to the danger that the patients pose, which makes their psychological situation even worse.

“In some cases, patients go out of control and are brought at the isolation room, where they stay for two or three hours”, the prison doctor says.

Prisoners are cured in difficult conditions and the medicine is not sufficient. Pharmacists are unable to give a complete answer about the cure that is given to patients.

This situation has turned into a case for the Albanian justice for decades. The Albanian Helsinki Committee warns that soon they will deposit reports for the officials that are not solving this situation.

“I am very concerned by the answer that I received by the Prosecutor General, who said that he knows about the fact that prosecutors need to send them at health institutions, but there’s nothing he can do about it and these people will return in prisons once again. We cannot accept this, so please report this to him. Soon there will be reports by the Albanian Helsinki Committee, based on a law, and that report will be for prosecuting the prison directors who have admitted them and the prosecutors that have ordered, and judges who have decided against the law”, declared the Albanian Helsinki Committee leader, Vjollca Mece.

The representative of the cause admits that Albania has been failing in this sector for the past 15 years.

“This is part of the Prosecution competences, and goes beyond what the Prosecution can do. We have been looking for the creation of this institution for at least 15 years, but that’s all what our state can do”, declared Prosecutor Bujar Shehi.

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