UKRAINE: COUNTRY OPENS FIRST NEW EUROPEAN STANDARD PRISON AS IT STRUGGLES TO UPDATE ITS OVERCROWDED AND OUTDATED SYSTEM

Record ID: 872869

  • Title: UKRAINE: COUNTRY OPENS FIRST NEW EUROPEAN STANDARD PRISON AS IT STRUGGLES TO UPDATE ITS OVERCROWDED AND OUTDATED SYSTEM
  • Date: 25th September 2003
  • Summary: (L!2) DNIPROPETROVSK, UKRAINE (SEPTEMBER 25, 2003) (REUTERS) TWO BEDS IN A PRISON WARD TOILET AND SHOWER GUARD SHOWING LINEN 4, GUARD OPENING REFRIGERATOR UNBREAKABLE GLASS WINDOW OF THE WARD MONITOR SCREEN SHOWING GUARD IN THE CORRIDOR GUARD AT THE DESK GUARD OPENING METAL DOOR (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) OLEXANDER GURIN, POLICE CAPTAIN SAYING: "We have different people here from homeless who committed various crimes to those who committed other crimes, financial etc. They all go through us." PRISON CORRIDOR EXTERIOR OF THE PRISON POLICE OFFICERS NEAR PRISON BUILDING BARBED WINDOWS POLICE TRUCK PASSING THROUGH GATES
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DNIPROPETROVSK AND KIEV, UKRAINE
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAABNLSJIXJ7UFJOFME60B4C2L9
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Ukraine opens first new European-standard prison as it struggles to update its overcrowded and outdated prison system.
    This light, clean and air-conditioned medium-sized room has two beds with white sheets, two chairs and a table with a TV set, a toilet behind the partition and a shower.
    But this is not a hotel. It is a prison in Ukraine's industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk.
    Although the view from the window is somewhat spoilt by the bars, the room is a far cry from usual prison fare in Ukraine.
    In a bid to gain acceptance by the European Union, Ukraine has pledged to transform it's prisons. They have said they would build modern jails, reduce prison population and improve medical services for inmates.
    "We have different people here from homeless who committed various crimes to those who committed other crimes, financial etc. They all go through us" said Police captain Oleksander Gurin.
    Ukraine is rates as one of the world's 10 most corrupt countries by the Berlin-based anti-graft group Transparency International.
    Earlier local press has reported that police had planned to charge about 22 USD per night at the Dnepropetrovsk Pre-Trial Detention Centre. But officials said the idea of paid prison was soon dropped despite high costs of renovation.
    However the reality of other 200.000 Ukrainian inmates remains harsh. In other prisons inmates share mattresses on wooden floors in dank rooms infested with cockroaches.The cells are small, unbearably hot with 15 inmates sharing 15 square metres. Overcrowded and with funds of about 20 cents to spend on each prisoner per day, older prisons are rife with disease.
    Health officials and international experts estimate that about 30 percent of Ukraine's total prison population has tuberculosis.
    In a few months some of these cells will be turned into a clean room for just four people but most of Ukraine's prisoners would have to live in such conditions for months or years.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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