site.btaJustice Ministry to Request Resources for Handling Problems at Prisons

Sofia, April 10 (BTA) - Speaking to reporters after a meeting with prison chiefs and the leadership of the authority for the implementation of penalties here on Tuesday, Justice Minister Tsetska Tsacheva said her ministry will request from the Government resources for handling the problems at Bulgarian prisons.

Resources will be requested for an increase in the number of permanent employees in the penitentiary system as well as surveillance systems and equipment, as the Trade Union of Employees in Prisons in Bulgaria demands. Tsacheva specified that additional permanent jobs can be achieved through the 2019 national budget.

The Justice Minister also said that two working groups will be set up: one to review the existing permanent positions and seek a way to optimize them, so that prisons with a shortage of personnel can get additional employees; and another to propose technical means to support the work of employees in prisons and determine their cost. The two working groups should finish their respective tasks by the end of April.

The participants in the meeting also decided that the prison chiefs should conduct a full check into the security zones and high-risk individuals. The effect of the introduced amendments to the Implementation of Penal Sanctions and Detention in Custody Act will be evaluated because, according to the prison chiefs, part of the revisions demotivate the employees in prisons. A strategy will be elaborated for the policies related to the implementation of penal sanctions, the draft of which will be ready by the end of summer, Tsacheva said. She added that this strategy will be aimed at determining where exactly the problems in the system lie.

Asked whether magistrates, police officers and employees in prisons can feel safe, given the 51 prison escapees in the period from 2014 to 2017, Tsacheva said that no one can feel safe. She specified that these prisoners had escaped from "open" detention facilities, and only three of them remain at large.