As the Estonian newspaper “Postimees” reports, referring to “The Times” publication, the British government is considering the possibility of renting prison cells with other European countries.
British Justice Minister Alex Chock spoke about it at the conference of the ruling Conservative Party. He said that changes to the law would be needed to allow those convicted in England and Wales to serve their sentences abroad.
The British Minister of Justice mentioned that, for example, Norway and Belgium have once rented out prison cells.
Norway 2015-2018 In 2008, prison cells were rented from the Netherlands, where 650 Norwegian prisoners served their sentences.
About the same number of prisoners from Belgium also served their sentences in the Netherlands in the first half of the last decade.
Csok visited Estonia this summer, and the two countries are in talks about leasing prisons to house British convicts, The Times reports.
The British Conservatives promised before the 2019 general election to build new prisons for more than 20,000 prisoners to serve their sentences, but the construction of new prisons is delayed, for example, due to territorial planning problems.
The British Ministry of Justice had to place 400 prisoners in police isolation cells in the summer. Differences in prison load can be observed in different regions of Great Britain.
Rait Kuze, Vice Chancellor of the Ministry of Justice of Estonia, said that the consultations that took place cannot be considered as negotiations.
The British side has only inquired whether Estonia would consider taking in persons sentenced to serve prison sentences in Great Britain.
He explained that the current laws do not support such cooperation. The final decision can be taken by the parliament, if the issue of receiving British prisoners comes to its agenda at all, emphasized the official of the Ministry of Justice of Estonia.
In ten years, the number of prisoners in Estonian prisons has decreased by almost 1,300.
Currently, there are almost 2,000 prisoners in Estonia, but the prisons have room for 3,000 prisoners. As a result, there have been calls to close one of Estonia’s three prisons to cut costs.
Tallinn prison has 1190 places for prisoners, Viru prison can accommodate 974 prisoners and Tartu prison – 933 prisoners.
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2023-10-04 14:59:58
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