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Returns the 200 most dangerous prisoners, The Telegraph: Britain will build a prison in Albania

Politiko 2024-10-02 22:31:26

Returns the 200 most dangerous prisoners, The Telegraph: Britain will build a

Britain has helped to open a new multi-million prison - in Albania, reports the British media 'The Telegraph '. 

UK prison officers have been working with their Albanian counterparts to open the country's first prison following a £4million-a-year prisoner transfer deal with the Balkan country.

Britain is paying Albania the money to bring back 200 of its most dangerous prisoners, as well as funding prison officer training, prison refurbishment, extra security, workshops and rehabilitation equipment.

The UK has also paid for a £1.5m fleet of 15 electric cars and 22 minibuses to help improve Albania's prison service.

It is part of the government's efforts to tackle the overcrowding crisis which saw prisons in England and Wales almost run out of space this summer.

There are around 1,270 Albanians held in prisons in England and Wales, the largest number of any nationality and accounting for nearly one in seven of the 10,500 foreign prisoners.

 The 10,500 foreign prisoners are taking up one in nine places in prisons at a cost of £52,000 per person, or almost £550m, which is why ministers are scrambling to find ways to repatriate them, we are told article.

The new Albanian open prison, called Ali Demi Prison and based in Tirana, will target offenders in the last six months of their prison terms, where it will mimic similar institutions in the United Kingdom. A team of UK prison service managers and technical experts have advised on planning and regime for the new prison, where prisoners will have their own rooms set in a terrace-style street with freedom to come and to go.


Initially, it was a women's prison with a "softer" regime designed to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into Albanian society. There will now be space for 25 male prisoners. Klevis Qose, the general director of the Albanian prison service, said: "We are ready to populate the open prison of Ali Demi, the newest prison in Albania.

"The project financed by the Albanian government and with the support of the British embassy in Tirana for increasing and strengthening the capacities of human resources, is expected to prepare the offenders to adapt as naturally as possible to civilian life," he said. 

The open prison can be used by the most serious Albanian offenders transferred from the UK until the end of their sentence.

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