Severe overcrowding at the Central Prison in Nicosia has led to convicted inmates being held in police detention cells, according to reports in the Greek Cypriot press.
The situation has become so strained that some police stations are said to be unable to take new detainees because their holding areas are already full.
Fileleftheros, which led with the headline “Drowning in the Prison”, reported that the facility — built for around 700 people — is currently holding 1,164 inmates. Despite weekly presidential pardons releasing about 10 prisoners at a time, numbers continue to rise.
The paper said around 50 inmates are being kept in police cells due to lack of space in the prison, creating additional operational problems for the police, who have at times postponed arrests because no detention space was available.
The Justice Ministry is reportedly planning to release 130 inmates earlier than scheduled — most of them foreign nationals convicted of irregular migration offences — in an effort to ease pressure on the system.
As a long‑term measure, authorities have approved the construction of a new prison with capacity for 1,200 inmates. However, the report notes that at the current rate of increase, even the new facility is expected to be insufficient within five years.
