From a hospital for children to a prison for politicians

If a prison's birthday were celebrated, the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Offenses (IEVP) in Durrës would have reached its 20th birthday.

It began operating in 2005, and politicians such as the mayor of Tirana, Erjon Veliaj, former Minister of Health Ilir Beqaj, and the Minister of Environment, Lefter Koka, are being held there under security measures.

In fact, its buildings are almost 10 years older, and above all belong to a completely different destination, those of a hospital built on a former swamp.

But for two decades, they have been passed to the Ministry of Justice, which uses them as prison structures.

The mid-1990s buildings were erected as the Pediatric Diagnostic Center in the coastal city, a completely new and unified service in the space that was growing in population.

Everything was achieved after the insistence of the "Lions Club" (District 108) in Italy, who immediately after the democratic changes in the country had become closely acquainted with and had helped the Albanian healthcare system.

The international service club had a 100-year history and very soon all the Lions clubs of the neighboring country were included in the Durrës project.

The 1995 agreement between the Municipality of Durrës, the Italian "Lions Club" and the Ministry of Health was a consequence of the very good recognition that the doctors and nurses of the neighboring country created for the difficult situation of the medical wards in the city hospital.

Work began on the former empty swamp, precisely in January 1996, while in parallel, the homes of the first families arriving from different regions of the country were also being built.

Residents recall having defended the structure with weapons during the troubled months of 1997.

Immediately after the inauguration, the buildings were christened with the first intensive care services for the first patients from the Kosovo crisis.

Albanian and Italian doctors came together in the new hospital for interventions of all kinds, even obstetric and gynecological ones.

“The hospital was expanded with personnel and equipment that arrived from Italy,” recalls Dr. Carlo d'Angelo, one of the doctors who oversaw the implementation of the project.

According to him, part of the hospital would be used as a ward for patients with mental problems.

Meanwhile, training for Albanian healthcare personnel began.

NATO used the hospital structure for several years, supporting military patients from problem areas.

"Meanwhile, the financial capabilities of the "Lions Club" from Italy, to advance the hospital's activities, began to shrink," says Dr. Carlo d'Angelo.

In 2003, a meaningful ceremony held in Durrës handed over to the Albanian state the health structure built by the “Lions” Club Italia.

Two years later, during a pre-election period, the building built for healthcare purposes changed its original destination.

The structure, which was born as a Pediatric Diagnostic Center, has since been used as the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Offenses./ BIRN