Penal system of Japan

Ljubljana – Prisons lack more than 100 prison officers to meet the security standards, a problem exacerbated by low pay and low interest in this career. The Prison Administration employs 554 prison officers and 16 candidates for the job, while it should have as many as 672 under the 2018 staffing standards, Justice Ministry data shows.

The director of the school in the Avlonas Prison for Young Offenders, in northern Attica, appealed to Sotiris Tsiodras, head of the Health Ministry's task force fighting the new coronavirus, to take additional measures to protect the health of inmates.

The release of thousands of prisoners started early April 15 after a law lowering the time limits on conditional release was approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and published on the Official Gazette.

Turkey's parliament ratified a penal reform bill early on April 14 aimed at reducing the sentences of thousands of prisoners, paving the way for their release in a bid to ease overcrowding and protect them from the coronavirus.

The bill was supported by 279 lawmakers in the 600-seat chamber while 51 voted against it.

Prison inmates in the Central Anatolian province of Isparta, famous for its rose, are producing 130 tons of rose cologne every month in the facility's cosmetic workshop.

Products from the workshop, which has been open for nearly two years, are sold all over Turkey, while convicts and detainees also earn income from production.

Hundreds of inmates at two Greek prisons have started boycotting mess halls at their institutions in a protest against delays in the approval of legislation introducing some more lenient measures for offenders.

Police on Thursday were searching for an inmate from Kassandra rural prison in Halkidiki who failed to return from a morning work assignment earlier in the day. The 44-year-old Serbian national is serving time for robbery convictions.

Prison authorities notified the local police station, which in turn alerted border stations and airports to prevent the escapee from fleeing abroad.

In the wake of last week's murder of an inmate at the Greek capital's main Korydallos Prison and a recent spike in violence at correction facilities around the country, the Justice Ministry has called a emergency meeting with prison directors on Tuesday to discuss the deteriorating situation.

Members of the #Rezist movement organised on Monday a protest at the Justice Ministry, throwing red paint on the stairs of the institution as a reaction to the release from prison of some violent inmates, through the compensatory remedy law.

On the stairs of the entrance of the Justice Ministry several knifes were also thrown, but also photos of Minister Tudorel Toader.

An investigation into the beating of a 19-year-old murder suspect in Avlona Prison, north of Athens, by a group of inmates, is to focus on the role of prison staff, Justice Minister Michalis Kalogirou indicated on Wednesday.