- 58 105. Ioannina Prison, built in 1968, accommodated adult males who have been convicted to a sentence of less than five years or are on remand. With a capacity for 70 persons, it was holding 232 prisoners (130 on remand) at the time of the visit. In 2010, numbers had temporarily dropped to 190 inmates, but in general this facility has been holding between 200 and 250 prisoners, and on occasion even close to 300. The prison is formed by a single building, with an inner court yard that is used for outdoor exercise. The accommodation block consists of nine dormitories located on two floors. In 2012, the European Court of Human Rights found that the conditions in Ioannina Prison amounted to degrading treatment, due to severe overcrowding and the resulting lack of space.64 Already in 2009, the Greek Ombudsman had noted that the dormitories and cells were “absolutely insufficient” for the number of inmates and that the living space per inmate was “absolutely intolerable”. Regrettably, the delegation found that overcrowding remained a massive problem, affecting all parts of the prison. There are four large dormitories in Ioannina Prison, measuring some 50 m² which at the time of the visit were accommodating some 30 prisoners each. Five smaller dormitories, situated on the ground floor, measured between 15 m² and 32 m², and were accommodating between eight and 18 inmates. 176 prisoners were accommodated inside these nine dormitories, while the remaining 56 prisoners had to sleep in the corridors, several of them in bunk beds (some two to a bed), others on mattresses placed on the floor. There was a complete absence of privacy for the inmates placed in the corridors. Notwithstanding the overcrowding, the large windows in the dormitories offered good access to natural light and sufficient ventilation, and artificial lighting was adequate. Further, the incell sanitary annexes (two showers, two toilets and two sinks) were fully partitioned. However, some of them were in a bad state of repair and had mould growing on the ceiling. In sum, the conditions of detention at Ioannina Prison remained very much the same as described by the European Court of Human Rights in its judgment of Samaras and others. 106. Komotini Judicial Prison was accommodating 336 inmates for an official capacity of 96 places. The prison has two accommodation wings. The first one contained nine dormitories, each of which measured some 60 m2 (including the sanitary annex), and were accommodating between 25 and 30 prisoners. Some prisoners had to share a bed, and in other cases inmates had to sleep on mattresses on the floor. In some of the dormitories, mould was growing on the ceilings and walls. The second wing consisted of 20 cells measuring some 8 m2 each, including the space taken up by a toilet and sink (which were not fully partitioned from the rest of the cell). The cells were equipped with two sets of bunk beds and, at the time of the visit, 15 of them were holding four prisoners each; as for the remaining five cells, they were holding six persons each, resulting in an intolerable level of overcrowding. The pressure on space in the establishment was such that the five disciplinary cells had to be used to accommodate prisoners who needed to be separated from other prisoners. 64 European Court of Human Rights, Samaras and others v. Greece, Judgment of 28 February 2012

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