Maria Ejchart, Deputy Minister of Justice, announced in an interview with the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita on Monday that the ministry aims to release approximately 20,000 prisoners due to overcrowding in the country's prisons. She also mentioned that the first early releases have already occurred.

She stated that, consistent with her previous declaration, all 580 cells in Poland holding more than ten inmates were closed by the end of January. "Usually, there were 14 or 16 people in them... In such a situation, there is no possibility of resocialization," the official emphasized.

"In fact, the prisons are overcrowded. The main reason for this is the severity of the law and the policy of the previous government... A codification committee for criminal law, appointed in recent days, will work on changing these provisions," Ejchart said, emphasizing that this committee is independent of the Ministry of Justice.

She also mentioned plans to expand the use of electronic monitoring. "Without any changes, we can already use this solution for 4,000 people," she said.

When asked how many prisoners this could affect, the Deputy Minister of Justice stated that her goal "for this term is to reduce the number of prisoners by 20,000" and disclosed that the first releases have already taken place.

Official data

Meanwhile, according to a recently-issued statement by the Polish Prison Service, "as of March 15, 2024, the population of prisons and pre-trial detention centers nationwide stands at 88.75%.

"According to the regulation of the Minister of Justice dated December 9, 2022, regarding the procedure of competent authorities in case the number of inmates in prisons or pre-trial detention centers exceeds the total capacity of these facilities nationwide (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 2690), the overall capacity of these facilities has not been exceeded," reads the statement.

According to the 2023 figures, maintaining Poland's prison system costs PLN 3 bn (EUR 700 mln) a year.
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