Last October, the National Audit Office recommended that the Estonian state close the Tartu prison complex to save costs. The prison service announced today that such a drastic step will not be taken, but from 1 July 90 jobs will be lost in Tartu prison. At the same time, 250 prisoners will be resettled in other Estonian prisons.
The head of the prison service, Rait Kuuse, said the restructuring is being carried out with the aim of redirecting costs to allow higher wages to be paid to employees of other prisons. Currently, according to him, the prison service is in a difficult situation where their salaries are not competitive. Kuuse said that most of the dismissed employees will be offered the opportunity to work in Tallinn or Viru prisons.
Kuuse said there are still 411 prison places in the Tartu prison, as well as one open prison. According to him, out of a quarter of a thousand prisoners to be resettled, they are mainly sex offenders and drug addicts. Kuuse explained that Tartu Prison will continue to carry out the regional prison service for the counties of Jõgeva, Viljandi, Tartu, Valga and Põlva.
According to Kuuse, we are in a situation where prisons can be driven into a coma because the number of prisoners in Estonia has steadily decreased. “Compared to last year, the number of inmates has decreased by about 10% and there are currently 1,827 offenders in our three prisons, the lowest number in history,” he said, adding that the trend is unlikely to reverse. , since penal policy prefers alternatives to imprisonment.
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2024-01-17 13:33:48
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