Over 1,200 inmates have been released in the past month, since the law providing a six-day sentence reduction for each 30 days a detainee spends in improper conditions came into force, the Federation of Trade Unions in the National Administration of Penitentiaries (ANP) said.

This is double the number of 650 inmates put forth by justice minister Tudorel Toader. After the ANP released the data, the minister said they were erroneous and maintained that by November 7 650 people had been released.

“The 650 includes the 529 inmates released in the first day,” the minister said, quoted by Mediafax.

The law came into force as the Romanian Justice Ministry is trying to solve the overcrowding problem of local prisons as requested by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Ministry also plans to implement other measures, such as the revamping of some prisons and the construction of two other prisons.

The ANP also said that over 8,000 inmates will be released in the first year of the new law’s enforcement, adding at least 5,000 new crimes to the regular crime statistics.

“Very likely, we will have zero benefits in what the modernization of the penitentiary system is concerned, considering that the impactful investments to modernize the local prisons are still in the announcement stage,” the ANP said. The union argued that the public has a right to know exactly how many burglars, thieves, rapists, and criminals benefited from the law.

Some 24,336 people are currently held in local prisons, according to data on the ANP site.

The justice minister told the Parliament on Monday, November 13, that 25,093 inmates are held in local prisons, 5,972 more than the standard accommodation capacity of one inmate per 4 meters.

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editor@romania-insider.com