Penology

As a series of recent incidents demonstrate, the situation in the country's prisons has gotten completely out of hand.

The Greek state appears to have completely lost control. Basic standards of discipline and security are being disregarded. Facilities are at the mercy of criminal gangs.

As the search continued on Wednesday for two inmates who broke out of Attica's high-security Korydallos prison late on Tuesday, the Justice Ministry said it had ordered a probe to determine whether prison staff should be held responsible for the escape.

A manhunt is underway for two prisoners who broke out of Attica's high-security Korydallos jail in the early hours of Wednesday.

The two inmates, both Albanian convicts serving terms for burglary and theft, are believed to have used a makeshift grappling hook and a rope to vault over the perimeter fence.

Their absence was noticed at the Wednesday morning roll-call.

Dimitris Koufodinas, a prominent member of leftist terror group November 17, was granted his fifth furlough by a prison council on Thursday.

His jail leave starts on Friday and will last for six days.

Foreign prison inmates will soon be able to take Greek lessons, according to an agreement signed on Friday by the ministers of justice, Michalis Kalogirou, and education, Costas Gavroglou.

The Estonian authorities said that conditions in its prisons where war crimes convicts from the former Yugoslavia are serving their sentences comply with international standards.

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.

Greek prisons are overcrowded and have a relatively lower budget compared to other European Union countries, according to the "Prisons in Europe 2005-2015" report published on Tuesday by the Council of Europe.

Cyprus's president has publicly apologized for the early release of a man convicted of sexually exploiting a minor, admitting that the decision to grant him a pardon wasn't "well thought out."

President Nicos Anastasiades went off-script at an event Tuesday on combating sexual abuse against minors to offer the apology for making a "mistake."

An Istanbul court of appeal on Oct. 2 upheld aggravated life sentences of six suspects, including journalists, over terrorism charges.