Few staff in Kosovo prisons, those who are said to be at risk at work

Kosovo Correcting Service Union Chairman Zenun Sadiki in an interview for Kosovo Press says they are disappointed with the country's institutions, with promises they have been given from time to time.

According to him, workers of the correct staff are facing a great deal of dissatisfaction every day, starting with the non-addicted number of correctional officers. And according to him, this is also affecting their effectiveness at work.

The “Sella centre of imprisonment and detention according to us is missing staff and staff has been out of staff for 10 years and beyond, no one has ever been accepted new staff except at the Supreme Security Prison corrective Centre, and now 120 new workers are talking to me. And that causes an inefficiency for our daily work. The staff is very old, where the average age is 48 years. Imagine a 48 - year - old person, what a successful job he can do, which means he has no effective job in the Correcting Service. We've been looking for new officers to be admitted from time to time, but every time we've been told there's a shortage of” tools, he says.

Sadaj says the correctional staff are also at risk.

There's a overcrowding, especially in Dubrava Prison, a ward of over 100 and more convicts, 150 -160 convicts, working five, six guards, jobs are different, different routines, walks, sports, doctors, and so that, then, very few officers have to work. It's a very heavy job, a job where you're dealing with people who are deprived of freedom for years and years, it's not an easy job”, he adds.

He also criticizes the law that deals with such workers.

Where it says that the correct staff is handled by certain laws, which lack administrative instruction.

With such dissatisfaction, the connoisseur of security issues, Nuredin Ibishi, is also in agreement.

He says that justice organs are not allowed to be justified by lack of means.

“Even the aspect of capacity or number of guards that should cover a centre is not enough. They are often in the absence of tools but should not be justified. Need for such a capacity must be consistent with what must be envisioned. Not to reason that there are no means, and it should be taken in staff or other procedures as we know, lack of staff because of the impasses of their recruiting and selection process, very often these competitions have been announced and withdrawn due to a lack of the”, says Ibishi.

Of the monitors conducted in Kosovo prisons, from the Kosovar Centre for the rehabilitation of Torture Survivors, Alban Mourqi says it is evident that correctional centres are understaffed.

We see recently that there is a lack of corrective staff in these institutions, their conditions, their payments are not good, they are low. Few are motivated for work, and this still affects their performance, but even in the report with the convicts themselves, the corrective staff is not motivated, and this is certainly reflected in their work even in the most condemned report with which they have contact every day”, he claims.

Chief of Security and Operation Task Officer Burim Buleskaj confirms that lack of staff has also influenced smuggling, which rarely occurs in Kosovo prisons.

According to him, the lack of security equipment because of the limited budget has penalised these issues.

It is true that we lack capacity, without human resource staff, but fortunately this year, that now this month, 120 new officers, correctional officials, will be added to the academy. Which will greatly help increase capacity, because everyone is young, so the average age of our service will be reduced, and I believe it will increase efficiency at work. This number also affects the overall growth of our” capacities, the Buleskaj concludes.

Otherwise, there are currently about 1650 prisoners in Kosovo prisons. While, 1800 is the number of corrective staff, including correctional officers, civil staff and support staff.