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Prisons of “type C”: A new test field in the Greek experiment

The neoliberal government attempts to steal the "glory" of the US police state through unprecedented measures in the next bill

After dissolving labor rights and a first attempt to criminalize protests, the Greek government is preparing new, unprecedented measures to strengthen the police state, through the so-called prisons of "type C".

Speaking on the radio station "In Red," Ioanna Drosou, member of the "Initiative for Prisoners' Rights", revealed the main points of the bill concerning the prisons of "type C".

The first thing someone should notice, is that no change is predicted on the buildings of the new prisons. One would expect that new prisons of "special type", should satisfy special standards. However, the only thing that will change in existing prisons, or in sectors of existing prisons, is their name as prisons of "type C".

Inmates planned to be jailed in those prisons, will be divided into two categories. In the first category belong those who are convicted for participating in criminal organizations, or, for high treason, and will be kept in those prisons for ten consecutive years and reviewed whether to continue their detention every two years! The decision will be taken by only one person, the public prosecutor of Appeals, while only the Minister of Justice will have the right to decide whether an inmate should be transferred to prisons of "type C", or not. The prisoner will have the right to appeal only once within ten days, which is essentially only a typical matter.

The second category will include prisoners convicted for 10 years or more, considered dangerous for the security of the prison, or national security, or public order. In those prisons, inmates will be held for four consecutive years and then examined every two years.

Whoever is guided in this jail will not have the right for leave, will not have the beneficial calculation for offering job and receive education, it is not entitled to offer job or participate in educational programs, will have very strict restrictions on communication, phones-visits, will not have the right for free-living, will not have the right to be released earlier, and in fact, will not be entitled to anything.

From a first look, this bill seems to be a worldwide novelty. There are such prisons abroad, but they are disciplinary prisons for six months and not for four or ten years. Six months is the maximum time penalty in case of any crime inside prison. Beyond this, the inmate returns to a regular prison.

It is quite known that the Greek prisons suffer from inhuman detention conditions. It is characteristic that Greece has the most lifers in Europe, around 1200, while in other countries there are 100-200. Currently there are about 13,000 inmates and the capacity of prisons is for 9,500, counting only inmates who are in prison, not those who are in the holding cells, nearly 3,500, waiting to be led to jail. Under these circumstances, the only way for prisoners to assert their rights is to protest, and it is obvious that the bill for prisons of "type C", aims to establish complete suppression inside those prisons under inhuman conditions.

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It is obvious that the government tries to establish a cruel suppression state because the Greek experiment must be completed by any means. Protests are targeted through an attempt for further criminalization which will broaden the definition field of the person who is dangerous for the "national security, or, public order". Combining all these with the willing of the Greek police to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles, known as "Drones"(http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/06/drones-advanced-big-brother-arrives-in.html), capable for any type of interception, one can easily predict the dark future ahead of us.

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