Almost 90% of inmates study or work in Hungarian prisons

More than 10,000 of Hungary’s prison inmates, or 88 percent, spend their sentence studying or working, national prison chief Tamás Tóth told a press conference on Tuesday.

Tóth said one of the goals of the prison system was to rehabilitate inmates so that they could return to society as working citizens. Inmates are typically taught to master professions facing a labour shortage, he said. The prison chief said prison uniforms are now made exclusively by working inmates. Agricultural products needed to feed the prison population are also produced within the prison system. A total of 78 percent of grain crops and fruit grown in the prisons are sold on the free market and certain products like footwear are exported, Tóth said.

He noted that Hungary was getting ready to build eight new prisons with the aim of resolving the problem of prison overcrowding. Construction of the new facilities is expected to begin in April this year and set to be completed by summer 2018, he said. The new prisons will be capable of housing a total of 4,500 inmates. Simultaneously, Hungary has expanded three older prisons to make room for a combined 150 new inmates.

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