Hungary to end prison overcrowding by 2018

Budapest, September 23 (MTI) – The nine new prisons currently under construction in Hungary will be capable of housing a total of 6,000 inmates and will resolve the problem of prison overcrowding in the country when these facilities open in 2018, the National Command of Law Enforcement (BVOP) quoted Interior Minister Sándor Pintér as saying on Friday.

Pintér briefed the participants of a three-day meeting of the Middle Europe Corrections Roundtable (MECR) in Budapest.

At the Thursday session, Pintér discussed the progress Hungary has made with its law enforcement system since he last briefed the roundtable six years ago. These included, among others, the introduction of career models for the armed forces and law-enforcement staff and the passing of the new law enforcement code, the minister said. Pintér also mentioned the rise in inmate employment and the prison construction project.

MECR chief Karin Dotter-Schiller applauded Hungary’s progress and thanked the interior ministry’s support for the roundtable, BVOP said.

The meeting was attended by 22 law-enforcement chiefs from ten countries.

The MECR was founded in 2009 by Austria, Germany’s Bavaria land, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Lithuania, Hungary, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the International Corrections and Prisons Association.

Source: MTI