Inmates at Bistrita penitentiary have started on Wednesday afternoon, a spontaneous conflict, joining the protests at other prisons countrywide. Several inmates have climbed on the roof and throw with bottles to approaching guardians. They are protesting against the detention conditions, media report. The inmates in the cells provide them with bottles and other objects. The guards are placed on alert. Laura Opris, spokesperson for Bistrita Penitentiary, stated that 15 inmates have refused the bread, without invoking specific reasons.
Referring to the riots in penitentiaries, Justice Minister Raluca Pruna said she would not make decisions under pressure. “We are working on finding solutions. Escalating the tensions would not generate measures. I will not make any decision while under pressure. We need suitable decisions,” Pruna said.
Poarta Alba in Constanta County is the third penitentiary in the country joining the inmates’ protests, after the maximum security prison in Iasi and the one in Botosani. Some 200 inmates and their relatives protested on Tuesday against the detention conditions. Special troops intervened, according to television news.
At Poarta Alba (eastern Romania) 200 inmates have gone on hunger strike, local media reports.
According to a release from the Penitentiaries Administration, overall there are eight penitentiaries where the inmates have shown signs of protests in one way or another.
Wednesday morning, some 1,000 inmates at Botosani penitentiary (north-eastern Romania) resumed the protests started on Tuesday and put to an end by the intervention of SIAS troops.
In all three penitentiaries the inmates were out to the windows, pulled the bars and hit them with bottles and at the maximum security penitentiary in Iasi, where there were protests registered for two consecutive days, a cell was set on fire. Some of them refused the prison food.
In Botosani, inmates’ protests sparked on Tuesday night. They refused to eat and threw food away, then declined to enter the cells, staying on the hallways and chanting.
Inmates in Botosani shouted “Thieves! Thieves!”, “Down with communism”, “Brehuiescu do not forget! The prison is not yours”, “Freedom”, “Thieves keep us here illegally” and “We want justice!” stiri.botosani.ro reports.
At Iasi maximum security penitentiary, the protests began Monday and lasted for two consecutive days, on Tuesday a cell was set on fire.
The penitentiaries with protesters, according to the latest data, are:
- Iasi penitentiary – no violent protests, 480 inmates have refused food;
- Poarta Alba penitentiary: no violent protests, 50 inmates have refused food;
- Botosani – inmates have hit the bars, 8 inmates escalated their pavilion, 43 inmates have refused food, employees are on alert, support was requested from the Emergency Situations Inspectorate;
- Oradea penitentiary – no violent protests, 5 inmates have refused food;
- Miercurea Ciuc penitentiary – no violent protests, 81 inmates have refused food;
- Giurgiu penitentiary – no violent protests, one prisoner has refuse food;
- Vaslui penitentiary – inmates have protested verbally, 43 of them have refused food, employees are on alert;
- Braila penitentiary – no violent protests, 9 inmates have refused food.
Justice Minister Raluca Pruna said on several occasions that the Romanian prisons are overcrowded and announced two new prisons, with 1,000 beds each, are to be built.
However, Raluca Pruna believes that overcrowding cannot be solved on the long term by building new prisons, saying that the consolidation of the probation system is needed.