Temporary juvenile detention centre to be built next to central prisons

Justice Minister Costas Fitiris has said juveniles will be held in portacabins next to the central prisons rather than at Menoyia, telling the House finance committee on Monday that the facility is now expected by next October. Fitiris presented the ministry’s next year budget to the committee, where he said there were currently “30 minors” incarcerated in the central prisons. He said the ministry was “forced to go for this solution both in terms of time and cost” and so that the units could be moved when the new prison is constructed. The original timetable for a new juvenile detention centre was projected for around next June, and the Menoyia site, a former migrant detention centre with 160 cells, will instead serve as a police holding centre for those on remand. Fitiris said police cells were at 180 per cent of capacity, citing a recent case where a suspect arrested in Ayia Napa was instead taken to Paphos as there was no available space closer. The Menoyia centre will serve as a unit for transferring prisoners to the courts, he said, and repairs are under way with targeted completion before the end of the year. Paphos will however maintain its own detention centre due to operational logistics and the distance involved. Reports say more than 200 people are being held in police cells in poor conditions, and the ministry plans to revive a bill allowing certain low risk defendants to be electronically monitored at home. Disy MP Fotini Tsiridou, said there was no information regarding the next steps, recalling that last November the ministry had asked for an extension to the 2021 law, saying the Menoyia space would not be ready, and MPs had said it would be the last time for such an extension. The committee also heard plans for a new prison at Ayios Sozomenos for some 1,500 inmates, with the project currently estimated at €300 million and expected to take five years. The draft includes four detention wings, a medical unit, education facilities and sports grounds, and €1 million has been set aside in next year’s budget. Fitiris said studies were still awaited and promised to present the plans to affected municipalities, those being South Nicosia-Idalion in which the site lays in its boundaries, as well as neighbouring Latsia-Yeri.