The Hungarian government has given HUF 30 billion (EUR 88.4m) to the interior ministry to eliminate overcrowding in Hungarian prisons.
Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said Hungarian prisons are 115 percent full, adding that the funds may be used to set up temporary facilities with the aim of eliminating overcrowding by the end of September this year.
According to MTI, the minister welcomed parliament’s decision earlier this week to suspend compensation payments to inmates who sued the state over poor prison conditions.
Minister Gulyás insisted it was “obvious” that an “industry has been built on such cases”.
Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to suspend compensation payments to prisoners, pending the results of a “national consultation”. The state is being sued for more than HUF 10 billion in some 12,000 cases filed for prison overcrowding, and the issue will be addressed in a national consultation in March.
Meanwhile, the law prescribes the tabling of a motion for the victims to receive any outstanding compensation payments.