Prisoners announcing protest mobilizations in Greek prisons (24.03.2014)

These days a bill proposed by the Ministry of Justice relating to super-max security prisons and the banning of prison furloughs, is available for public consultation.

The first new measures of the government bill were issued in the media.

1) Special categorization of the prisoners in 3 types (A, B, C). All prisoners accused of robbery or extortion, within organized crime, political prisoners, whoever is considered “dangerous” and has been sentenced to more than 10 years of imprisonment up to a life sentence, or those who revolt inside prisons, will be registered in the type C special category.

2) Type C prisoners will be deprived of the right to furloughs and their visits and phone communication with relatives will be restricted.

3) Type C cells are going to be constructed (in Domokos, as well as in other prisons) aiming at the isolation of the prisoners.

4) Police gets a permanent place inside prisons (cell search, transfer of prisoners inside the prison, etc.) and is assigned confidential jurisdictions and powers, which aren’t even written in the Official Journal of the Government.

It is obvious that the government prepares a Greek version of Guantanamo. In a justice system where the principle of proportionality has been torn up and devastating penalties are imposed, Greece fights for the first position concerning multiannual imprisonment and life sentences.

The furloughs and the suspensions of sentence are the only measure that tries to balance this legal extermination. At the moment, cutting the furloughs of most of the prisoners (since each and every one of us can be considered “dangerous” and be categorized as “type C prisoner”), the system creates people without hope. Therefore, prisons become factories of crime recreation, as the prisoner has nothing to lose, because he has already lost everything. Their so-called “correction” becomes a revengeful punishment. At the same time, the continuous invasions of EKAM forces turn prisons to an exercise field of police violence and arbitrariness. Moreover, the prison prosecutor, who doesn’t even know the prisoners, because to him their are no more than a numbered file forgotten inside their desk drawer, has complete authority from now on.

We the detainees of all Greek prisons join our voices and claim our rights and our dignity.

We demand the dismissal of the new fascist government bill concerning the creation of a prison inside the prison. A bill which was edited “in the heat of the moment” as an order from the minister of the Police and the Mass Media. Stop the categorization of the prisoners. All the prisoners have equal rights. Preserve the right to furloughs, which in Greece has one of the highest percentages of success (only 2-3% of the inmates on leave do not return to prison). The budget line for the construction-conversion of the super-max security prisons to be used for the amelioration of the conditions of detention (absence of ration, heat, water, medical care).

We the prisoners are organizing and coordinating ourselves, and we will take action against all those who make prisons places of constant punishment and hopelessness.

We urge the minister, and each and every competent, to reflect on their responsibility and to start an open dialogue concerning prisons and the real problems on the inside.

In every other case we are ready to respond dynamically, all together and united, against injustice and the deprivation of our rights.