Today, Minister of Justice Nela Kuburović visited the renovated part of the Belgrade District Prison and the fully renovated Special Prison Hospital, noting that the two institutes were examples of the Ministry’s infrastructural investment priorities. She stressed that the purposes of such policy were the improvement of conditions in which persons deprived of liberty live and the implementation of the Reduction of Prison Overcrowding Strategy, including the improvement of working conditions for the prison staff.

Kuburović said that the complete renovation of the Special Prison Hospital cost around 190 million dinars, as well as that persons serving sentences in other penal-correctional institutes had participated in the renovation by making furniture for the Hospital. She added that the Ministry of Health had conducted an expert supervision of the Hospital in December of the previous year and found the quality and the expertise to be high and all modern medical treatments applied.

The Justice Minister highlighted that the Serbian Government was aware of the financial position of the employees of the Directorate for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions, explaining that the decision on a 10% salary increase included them, too. She added that the employees in the security services would be able to resolve their housing situations under more favourable conditions provided under a government project for the construction of affordable apartments for the security and safety sector employees, proposed by the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

Warden of the Belgrade District Prison Zvonko Grulović said that 7 out of the total of 12 wings had been renovated in line with the European standards, with the remaining wings to be renovated by 2021. Warden of the Special Prison Hospital Dragoljub Paunović noted that, after today’s opening of the renovated section where persons were being treated for drug addictions by mandatory court orders, the hospital was considered completely renovated. He said that the hospital now had all the necessary work equipment, making it a representable institution of the penal sanctions enforcement system.

The video material can be downloaded from the following website: www.infobiro.tv.