The new penitentiary in Chisinau municipality, which will be built near the Bubuieci commune, is expected to be ready by the end of 2028. The detention facility, with a capacity of over 1,000 places, will have the status of a criminal prosecution isolator and will replace the current Penitentiary No. 13, IPN reports.

Parliament approved the ratification of an agreement between the Justice Ministry and the United Nations Office for Project Services, which will manage the construction of the new penitentiary.

"The project, although with a less than happy track record, we hope this time to reach a successful conclusion. This project will run for 56 months. This would mean that the completion date would be December 31, 2028," Eduard Serbenco, state secretary at the MoJ, told the plenary.

In her speech, PAS MP Ana Racu noted that Penitentiary No. 13 was built in 1946. It has the status of an isolation facility for criminal prosecution, and it currently holds people on remand: women, men and minors.

According to her, the transit of persons in this institution is around 12 thousand people annually. "The legal capacity of Penitentiary No. 13 is 570 persons, and currently more than 820 persons are being held in this institution on remand," the MP said.

Ana Racu said that over the years this institution has been overcrowded. "In some cells, you could find 32, 34, 36 people sleeping in shifts, because they had no access to a bed. Some of these people were often placed in arbitrary detention," she said.

She added that the new penitentiary will be built with European money. The institution will have a capacity of 1050 places, the construction will be operated by UNOPS - an organization to optimize construction processes and technical supervision.

The construction of the new penitentiary has been underway since 2011, and in 2018 it will be put into operation.