Greek prison hospital inmates protest conditions
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Inmates held in Greece's only prison hospital are refusing food and medication as part of a protest campaign against their severely overcrowded living conditions.
The Korydallos prison hospital west of Athens is designed to hold 60 men but currently houses more than 200, rights groups and prison staff said Monday. Most are HIV positive and many others suffer from communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis and scabies.
Protesters posted statements on Facebook and Twitter saying at least 178 of the inmates have been refusing prison food for the past week, while some HIV positive inmates are refusing to take antiretroviral drugs to draw attention to their plight.
They also posted photos from inside the hospital, showing inmates sleeping on double bunks packed tightly together and on mattresses on the floor. One ailing man lies on a bunk, a drip in his arm fixed to a mop handle due to lack of equipment. The person handling the Twitter account posting the photos said they were taken within the last week. The head of the prison guards' union, Spiros Karakitsos, said they were an accurate depiction of current conditions.
The Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks, said on Twitter he was "worried at reports of degrading conditions of prisoners" at the hospital and a quick resolution was necessary.
Chronically overcrowded, Greek prisons have suffered an increase in inmate numbers and decrease in staff and funding over the past few years, exacerbated by the country's severe financial crisis. The Korydallos hospital is the only facility inside the penitentiary system where sick inmates can be housed. The institution has seen a dramatic increase in the number of HIV positive inmates, who serve their sentences in the hospital even if they are not otherwise sick. Staff say about 140-150 of those held there are HIV positive.
