New prison planned on site of former military units in Southern Romania

The site of two out-of-use military units in Unguriu, in Southeastern Romania’s Buzau county, will host a new prison, said Deputy Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, quoted by News.ro. The new prison will stand on a 15 hectares plot and use the structure of the former military units, already connected to utilities. Some 1,500 jobs will be created on site, according to estimates of the authorities. Marcel Ciolacu, who is also the leader of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) Buzau organization, visited Unguriu on August 31, together with Justice Minister Tudorel Toader. The Justice Ministry already gave its approval for the project. “The start [e.n. of the project] is the transfer of the land from the National Defense Ministry to the Justice Ministry. Then we will see about the financing: European funds, or the Junker Plan, or a World Bank investment,” Ciolacu said, quoted by News.ro. On a separate project, Romania’s Justice Ministry will order a feasibility study for building a prison that can accommodate 1,000 inmates in the village of Berceni, in Prahova county. Two years ago, the Government allocated RON 500,000 (EUR 108,000) for two pre-feasibility studies to build two prisons in Caracal and Berceni. The aim was to avoid future international sanctions due to detention conditions that don’t comply with EU rules. The National Administration of Penitentiaries has a deficit of 7,408 accommodation places, with 26,529 inmates on 19,108 places. In April this year, the European Court of Human Rights asked the Romanian State to present within six months a timetable for addressing the prison overcrowding problem and improving detention conditions. The ECHR has ruled several decisions against Romania for improper detention conditions in recent years. editor@romania-insider.com