Romania's Justice Ministry may compensate inmates held in improper conditions

Inmates who were held in improper conditions in Romanian prisons and didn’t benefit from the law granting early release because they left jail before October 2017, may receive financial compensations from the state. A new bill in this regard is currently being drafted by the Justice Ministry, justice minister Tudorel Toader said on Tuesday, March 20, according to local Mediafax. He said this measure is needed to comply with a pilot decision the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued against Romania on detention conditions. Romania has paid hundreds of thousands of euros to inmates who filed cases to the ECHR complaining about the improper detention conditions. In April 2017, the ECHR issued a pilot decision asking Romania to solve this problem. In October 2017, a law entered into force reducing the sentences of all detainees in Romania by six days for each 30 days spent in improper conditions. Thousands of convicts benefited from this law but the justice minister says those who were released before the law applied should also get some compensation. He argued that other countries such as Italy and Hungary also adopted similar measures. An annual report released by the Council of Europe on Tuesday shows that Romania is among 13 European countries whose prisons are overcrowded, with 106 inmates per 100 places available in local jails. However, the indicator is lower than in Hungary (132), Belgium (119), France (117), Portugal (109) and Italy (109). Meanwhile, Romania was second in Europe for the number of prisoners for each guard, with 6.7, surpassed only by Moldova (9.9). Romania’s Justice Ministry borrows EUR 223 mln for modernizing prisons editor@romania-insider.com