Excessive use of the security measure ‘prison arrest’ and violation of human rights while in prison are the main findings of the study of the Albanian Helsinki Committee.
In their latest report, the AHC noted a number of violations of fundamental rights and freedoms such as physical or psychological abuse at the time of arrest, detention, escort, or during interrogation by police.
Contrary to international standards, which require the use of appropriate security measures, imprisonment is used excessively by justice institutions in Albania. As of January 2019, there are 2268 persons detained or 40.6% and 3033 persons or 54.3% convicted and imprisoned.
AHC notes that keeping a detainee has a very high cost to the state budget. The data shows that the daily cost of detaining a citizen during 2019 was 2,910 ALL (EUR 23.29). The total cost of detaining people in 2019 was around 2.29 billion Lek ( EUR 18.3 million).
The study shows that some of the pre-detained individuals belong to vulnerable groups that face many difficulties of a socio-economic nature. Some of these individuals have been detained for criminal offences that do not pose a social danger.
