III. ASSESSMENT OF THE SITUATION

D. Conditions of detention

2. Judicial Prisons

51. In Korydallos Prison, in Athens, the prisoners were extremely agitated and showed a very high level of frustration. The blocks were overcrowded, and the sanitary conditions were bad with some mattresses hiding hundreds of cockroaches and bugs. He was informed that detainees had to buy almost everything and were not provided with enough food and sanitary products. He met detainees who had been in pre-trial detention for up to 18 months and expressed a strong feeling of arbitrariness. The Special Rapporteur noticed with concern that a part of Block E was hosting aliens in administrative detention, despite the clear lack of competence of prisons for such detainees. He observed that vulnerable groups such as gay, lesbian and transgender persons were held in separate cells. However, they were kept inside at all times in unacceptable conditions. Finally, in Korydallos and Chios Prisons, he noticed a lack of meaningful opportunities for education, work and recreation. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the completion of a new detention facility in Nigrita, Serres, with a capacity of 700, reportedly part of a Greek government plan to construct more detention facilities. It is his hopes that the planned constructions in Drama and Chania will be completed as scheduled in 2012.

APPENDIX: PLACES OF DETENTION VISITED AND INTERVIEWS CONDUCTED 

Korydallos Men’s Prison, Athens, Visited on 18 October 2010 

Individual cases

241. Two transgender persons from Greece were brought from Corfu to Athens for their court hearing three days earlier. They complained about the fact that the cell is overcrowded and very unhygienic. Also, they mention that the section of vulnerable persons is completely locked down all along the year, and that detainees cannot access the yard, because of an escape that happened in 2008. They therefore have to remain inside the small block all the time. They say that guards and detainees are respectful. The Government informed that the vulnerable persons in Block C of Korydallos Detention Facility were all pre-trials and held in separate cells for their own protection temporarily – contrary to the information provided by some detainees who mentioned they had been in these cells for a rather long period of time. The Government added that these two persons have already been transferred to other detention facilities, in individual cells, for serving their sentence.

Link to full text of the report: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/16session/A.HRC.16.52.Add.4.pdf 

 

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