The main objective of the visit was to examine the situation of forensic psychiatric patients and to review the progress made as regards the implementation of the CPT’s long-standing recommendation that all such patients be transferred to a proper forensic psychiatric facility. To this end, the CPT’s delegation visited Zaharia Special Institution for Ill Inmates in Kruja, where virtually all male forensic psychiatric patients in Albania were held, as well as the Prison Hospital in Tirana, which accommodated all female forensic psychiatric patients in the country. Further, the delegation paid a brief visit to Lezha Prison in order to examine the arrangements made in two separate detention blocks to accommodate male forensic psychiatric patients on a temporary basis.
In the report, the CPT acknowledges the measures taken by the Albanian authorities to transfer all male forensic psychiatric patients from the Kruja Special Institution to Lezha Prison. At the same time, given the structural deficiencies observed by its delegation both at Lezha Prison and the Prison Hospital, the Committee stresses the urgent need to find a permanent solution for the accommodation and treatment of male and female forensic psychiatric patients by creating a specialised forensic psychiatric facility (as is required by the relevant mental health legislation).
The report has been made public under an automatic publication procedure adopted by the Albanian authorities.
