The government set a goal in 2010 that all prisoners of working age whose sentence allows them to work should contribute to the cost of their care.Continue reading
A law amendment passed three years ago has effectively curbed the phenomenon known as “prison business” in Hungary, according to an article in Mandiner.
The number of claims paid out in prison overcrowding lawsuits fell to 20 times less last year after parliament passed a law three years ago to crack down on “prison business,” the news portal wrote.
Before the legislation was amended, there was a year in which more than 2.6 billion forints (6.9 million euros) in damages were awarded to prisoners suing over prison conditions. In 2020, parliament passed a series of amendments to the law to end a wave of compensation lawsuits over overcrowding in prisons, which had become a business in the years before.
Recently, Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) MP Előd Novák asked the Ministry of the Interior in how many cases and how much the state had paid out in compensation lawsuits per year. In his reply, Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, wrote that the amendment has achieved its aim.
While, for example, in 2018, 2.6 billion forints (6.9 million euros) were awarded in 11 478 cases, in 2022, 111 million forints (296,557 euros) were awarded in 924 cases.
The Mandiner article revealed that lawyers linked to the Hungarian opposition were also very active in the “prison business.” These proceedings also generated significant revenues for law firms. However, under the new law, the compensation awarded is paid directly into the bank accounts of the prisoners, with a number of deductions, so lawyers are much less keen to take on such cases.
Featured photo via Instagram/hungarianprison