In the course of last year, the National Administration of Penitentiaries received over 3,400 petitions. Almost 80% of these were submitted by persons who are in detention, while the others were filed by relatives or lawyers. The largest number of petitions came from Penitentiary No. 13. In over 1,000 cases, the detainees invoked problems concerning the execution of the jail’s punishment, while 800 cases referred to the living and detention conditions in penitentiaries, IPN reports.

According to a report by the National Administration of Penitentiaries, over 600 cases of self-mutilation and six cases of suicide were logged last year. The number of cases of self-mutilation decreased by about 17%, while of suicide doubled compared with 2017. There were also reported 15 suicide attempts, up 13% on 2017, and 780 cases of hunger strike, mainly at penitentiaries No.17 Rezina, No.11 Balti and No.13 Chisinau. This was due to the fact that these jails have the status of criminal prosecution isolator and have thus special detention conditions.

An analysis of the European Court of Human Rights’ work in 2018 carried out by the Legal Resources Center of Moldova shows the non-implementation of court judgments (old judgments), ill-treatment,  inappropriate investigation of cases of ill-treatment and death, detention in poor conditions, arbitrary detention, illegal quashing of irrevocable court judgments are among the most often violations identified in the Moldovan cases.

On December 31, 2018, 6,990 persons were held in the national penitentiary system. The figure is lower than in 2017. About 70 prisoners were minors, 80 detainees were former public functionaries, while 121 persons served life.

Some 36% of the prisoners are aged between 30 and 40, while 28% are aged between 21 and 30.