Prisons in Slovakia

Prisons in Slovakia are fully owned and operated by the state. In 2004, Slovakia had 8 891 prisoners, representing 165 per 100 000 of the national population. By the end of 2010 the prison population has risen to 10 031 prisoners (184 per 100 000 citizens). As of 2010, Slovakia had 18 correctional institutions capable of holding 9 500 inmates (other sources claim 10 615). Of these, five are devoted to pre-trial detainees, nine for sentenced prisoners, and four for a combination of sentenced prisoners and pre-trial detainees.

The prison system is administered by the Slovak General Directorate of the Prison and Court Guard Corps (current Director General is Col. Mgr. Róbert Mudronček, since 1 October 2010 ) falling under the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic. Current occupancy level of the Slovak prison system is 94.5%. According to newspaper SME, currently there is no place for convicted criminals evading their sentences, if they were to be arrested by the Slovak police, there would simply be no place where to detain them. According to the Slovak Ministry of Justice, the number of convicted prisoners is critical, despite the fact that 9 prisons lowered the minimal space per prisoner to lower values than mandated by law.

Czechoslovakia inherited a prison system from Austria-Hungary that is considered relatively progressive, with the facilities cited as being among the better prisons in Europe. As late as during the 1940s the prison system still incorporated the Leopoldov structure, originally built in 1669 to defend against the Turkish invaders. Between 1865 and 1952, Slovakia's prison system was controlled by the General Directorate of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard, under the Ministry of Justice, an organisational scheme similar to the one still in use today.

The country's oldest prisons date from the 17th century. Two of the largest prisons, Leopoldov Prison and Ilava Prison were reconstructed from an army fortress and a monastery respectively, both during Austria-Hungary. The largest prisons have a capacity of 600 - 900 prisoners.

At the end of 1989, Czechoslovakia overthrew communism in its velvet revolution. Coinciding with the social and political changes outside, prisoners all around the country became rebellious. In Slovakia, the unrest started in December 1989 in Zeliezovce prison. In many prisons the inmates constructed simple banners out of bed sheets with slogans similar to those worn by protesters in the squares. Also, the prisoners started organizing themselves creating self-governing commissions and choosing spokespersons to represent their demands. Prison unrest became the focus of daily news coverage in Slovakia and situation escalated to the point, where several government ministers and the prime minister personally came to conduct negotiations to Leopoldov Prison.

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