- 22 B. Prison establishments 1. Preliminary remarks a. prisons visited 45. In 2011, the CPT visited for the first time Domokos Prison. The CPT’s delegation also carried out a follow-up visit to Amfissa Prison and targeted visits to Korydallos Men’s, Korydallos Women’s Remand, Thessaloniki and Thiva Prisons to examine the progress made in implementing the Committee’s recommendations contained in the report on the 2009 visit, notably, as concerns persons placed in segregation areas, staffing, the provision of health care and overcrowding. b. overcrowding and other structural deficiencies 46. In the 16 months since the CPT’s previous visit to Greece in September 2009, the prison population has increased from 10,950 to 12,349, while the official capacity of the prison system stands at 9,000. The delegation was informed that the three new prisons of Serres (Nigrita), Drama and Chania with a combined capacity of 1,800 should become operational in the course of 2011. However, the staffing of these new prisons was dependent on transferring staff from existing prisons, which were themselves already understaffed. The effects of overcrowding were evident in most of the prisons visited by the CPT’s delegation. At Korydallos Men’s Prison, the situation remains dire with up to five inmates sharing cells originally designed for single-occupancy. In other prisons, such as Amfissa, inmates still have to share beds or resort to sleeping on the floor. The situation in these prisons may be extreme but the deleterious effects of overcrowding were apparent in other prisons visited by the delegation. 47. The CPT recognises that investing in new prisons may be necessary both to increase capacity as well as to replace prisons which do not serve the stated purpose of holding inmates in a secure and safe environment26. However, as acknowledged by the Greek authorities, the building of additional accommodation is unlikely, in itself, to provide a lasting solution to the problem of overcrowding. Legislation has been adopted to limit the use of remand custody to serious offences and, in addition to provisions to enable the early release of prisoners, a law was adopted in December 2010 to increase resort to use of community service. The CPT has noted these measures and would like to be informed of their impact upon the prison population. The CPT recommends that the Greek authorities actively pursue their efforts towards eradicating overcrowding as a chronic feature of the prison system. 26 As set out in the 1999 Prison Law (N° 2776).