Minister of Justice, Etilda Gjonaj presented this Thursday the mitigation measures for prisons. In a meeting with prison officials, she announced that the convicts' meetings with family members, special permits and social and cultural activities will resume. 

Minister states that convicts can meet family members once a month, but the latter must present to the prison a vaccination certificate, a negative test against COVID-19 or a test that proves that he/she has passed COVID-19. 

Minors can meet with family members 4 times a month. Also, special or rewarding permits for convicts can be granted only for mortal cases. It will also start limited social and cultural activities in prisons, according to anti-Covid measures. 

Gjonaj's full speech:

On the facilitation of the measures, the technical group set up in the Ministry of Justice with health personnel have evaluated, proposed the facilitation of some measures for a temporary period, monitoring the situation. 

Regarding the easing of restrictive measures, for a temporary period, an assessment of the suggestions was made, as well as referring to some practices of European countries that have begun to ease the restrictions by taking into account the situation of the population. 

The easing of restrictive measures in the prison system will be in 3 directions: 

1-Limited resumption of meetings with family members 

2-Resuming the issuance of special permits 

3-Resumption of social and cultural activities 

Specifically, the new measures start from June 14 for a period under monitoring by all health structures. It consists concretely in: 

Resumption of appointments, 1 appointment per month, distance, health check when the family member must submit the test or vaccination document, or other tests that show that they have passed COVID. Anticovid measures will be observed during the meetings. For convicted juveniles 4 meetings per month. 

The very good practice of online communications with Skype will also be maintained. Also will resume the issuance of special permits, dated 22 January 2021, to determine the procedures of reward or special permits, will be only for mortal cases. 

Regarding the resumption of activities, anti-Covid rules will be observed to rehabilitate and educate convicts. They will start in a limited way.  This easing of restrictive measures requires maximum attention from the management, requires daily monitoring to protect the health and life of convicts.