Commissioner tells MPs overcrowding is forcing prisoners to sleep on floors

Nicosia, Cyprus. Overcrowding and insufficient facilities at the central prisons have left inmates sleeping on floors, administration commissioner Maria Stylianou Lottides told MPs on Wednesday. Presenting her office’s annual report before the House institutions committee, she said detention conditions had deteriorated, raising the risk that prisoners would face inhuman or degrading treatment.

Prison capacity and detention facilities

Lottides identified the construction of new prisons and alternatives to detention as possible ways to ease overcrowding. These included electronic monitoring in cases where it is permitted.

She said her office conducts prison visits roughly once every two weeks, examining complaints concerning inmates’ healthcare, meals, accommodation and treatment.

The commissioner also raised concerns about police detention facilities, especially those in Lakatamia and Limassol. She said infrastructure shortcomings there included insufficient space in courtyards.

Delays in social assistance decisions

Lottides criticised the time taken to assess social assistance applications, saying applicants urgently needing financial help could not wait between one and two years for a decision.

She said substantial delays continued to affect applications for minimum guaranteed income, despite steps taken to tackle the problem. Rejected applications also lacked an effective review process because the same services examined them, she added.

Complaints and public service compliance

According to the report, the office dealt with 4,655 complaints and investigations, a total that included outstanding cases from earlier years. It completed its examination of 2,709 cases.

Another 1,783 cases were settled through guidance or intervention without issuing a formal report, while 762 complaints were beyond the commissioner’s remit.

The report put public services’ compliance with interventions requiring no formal report at about 91 per cent.