-9II. FACTS FOUND DURING THE VISIT AND ACTION PROPOSED A. Prison establishments 1. Preliminary remarks a. prison reform 12. In the report on its 2019 visit, the CPT once again highlighted that the two overarching problems of overcrowding and chronic shortage of staff compounded the many additional shortcomings in the prisons visited: including, very poor material conditions, lack of hygiene, the absence of an appropriate regime and high levels of inter-prisoner violence and intimidation as well as an insufficient provision and inadequate medical care in prisons. Following the legislative elections of 7 July 2019, a new Government under Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took up office. One of the first actions taken by the Government was to transfer the responsibility for anti-crime policy and prisons from the Ministry of Justice to the Ministry of Citizens Protection. The initial focus of the Government has been on reforming the Greek criminal law and prison legislation and taking measures to improve security in the prisons. Since March 2020, this focus has shifted towards preventing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in prisons. Further, at the time of the visit, a new Strategic Plan for the prisons for 2021-2023 was being drawn up. 13. Overcrowding has been a constant feature of the Greek prison system for many years and modulating its increase in recent years was largely achieved by the adoption of emergency measures under Law 4322/2015,6 which were extended in 2016 and 2017. Nevertheless, these interventions sought only to manage the problem and were not accompanied by policies to address the causes of overcrowding. In far too many instances, persons in prison continue to be held in overcrowded cells or dormitories offering less than 4m² of living space, and in many instances less than 3m², per person. At the outset of the visit, the Greek authorities informed the CPT’s delegation that a central plank in their strategy to resolve overcrowding and to improve material conditions in prisons was the building of new establishments, which would result in more than 3,000 additional places. In particular, new 600-place prisons will be built in Chalkida, Ioanina and Kourounes, Lassithi in Crete as well as a Model Open Labour Prison in Megalopolis. The prison in Drama (600 places) has been completed and will open once staffing resources are available. Further, Korydallos Prison Complex will be replaced by a new 2,000-place Judicial Prison Complex in Athens (Aspropyrgos). Upon completion of these new prisons, certain existing establishments such as Chalkida and Ioanina Prisons will be closed. In the CPT’s view, constructing new prisons is not likely, in itself, to provide a lasting solution to the problem of overcrowding. For instance, between 1997 and 2019 the prison estate in Greece more than doubled its capacity yet overcrowding was not resolved. Addressing this problem calls for a coherent strategy, covering both admission to and release from prison, to ensure that imprisonment – including pre-trial detention – really is a measure of last resort as recommended in paragraph 17. 6 These measures included the introduction of early release schemes, the adoption of non-custodial alternatives to detention, special or alternative arrangements for certain vulnerable categories of prisoners and the limitation of imprisonment for juveniles.