HISTORY OF THE PRISON

In the seventies of the 20th century, the construction of a new prison facility on the southern outskirts of Banská Bystrica, its part Kráľová, was initiated. This facility was built to replace the former temporary premises of the Banská Bystrica prison branch - Kotva, where were placed sentenced prisoners assigned to the first correctional group. Banská Bystrica-Kráľová Prison was established based on the order of the Minister of Justice of the Slovak Socialist Republic on February 1, 1977 as a unit of Banská Bystrica-Kráľová Correctional Detention Center. From June 1979, it housed sentenced male prisoners assigned to the second correctional group. The capacity of the facility was 1,200 sentenced prisoners by the year 1990.

After 1990, under the approved Concept of Security in Prisons of the Slovak Republic, the prison was modernized and completed from the point of view of technical support, signaling, and security equipment. The entrance into the prison, guard towers, and lighting were completely rebuilt, and a new video surveillance and alarm - security systems were installed.

THE PRESENT

Based on the amendments to the Act on Prison Sentence Execution of 2005, the prison ensures the imprisonment in the medium security level. The current capacity of the prison decreased to 753 prisoners.

Cultural and awareness-raising activities in the prison are mainly focused on the following areas: educational activities, interests and sports activities, use of the prison library, watching television and listening to radio broadcasts, subscription to newspapers and magazines, cultural, educational and entertainment events, organization of cultural performances, and other events contributing to increasing the cultural level and general education of sentenced prisoners. The prison has established an educational center, which is used for education and for organizing joint cultural events, concerts, lectures and discussions accompanied with autograph sessions with well-known personalities of sports, social and cultural life.

There are several interest groups of various kinds (chess, music, aquarium, running, etc.), as well as a prison library, the collection of which consists of domestic and foreign literature. The library currently contains more than 4,600 titles of various genres.

The prison provides education for sentenced prisoners in cooperation with the Kremnička School in Banská Bystrica in the form of full-time study in off-site classes in the following study fields: three-year study field of painter and 3-year study field of carpenter. In cooperation with the Faculty of Law of University of Matej Bel, the prison organizes the educational activity "Legal Clinic for Communities" (street law).

Employment of prisoners is one of the main tasks of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard resulting from legal provisions. It helps prisoners in the process of resocialization so that they can successfully reintegrate into society and find jobs on the labor market after their release. Given the connection of income and expenses to the state budget, it is also a stabilizing element of financing the needs of the prison and is one of the means permanently used to achieve the purpose of imprisonment. The prison was built only as a correctional facility without any production facilities and given the fact that before 1990 all prisoners worked outside the prison, directly in state production plants and on state buildings, their disappearance resulted in an immediate lack of job opportunities. Since the prison is located in a region with a high unemployment rate, it was not easy to gradually establish itself on the labor market. In accordance with the current legislation, the prison now organizes and manages the employment of prisoners within its own prison industry centers and at the workplaces within its internal operation and organizational units. Work in the prison industry centers is carried out in the form of in-house production or by providing works and services on the premises of the prison or outside it, at workplaces with direct guarding, or at unguarded workplaces overseen by a prison officer. The prison´s own production is intended primarily to meet the needs of the Corps. Work and services within the prison industry centers are provided to other legal entities or individuals on the basis of concluded written contracts.

The biref characteristics of the prison industry centers:

VH-01Assembly and disassembly work – ensuring operations during the disassembly of electronic waste.

VH-03 Woodworking hall - processing of wood material using standard technologies, production of coniferous lumber, construction timber, and wooden transport pallets.

VH-04 Carpentry workshop - an in-house production center where carpentry work is carried out within the scope of simple manufacturing based on model designs, including the production of basic wooden items with the option of engraving.

VH-05 Auxiliary work center – a center providing labor and services involving basic manual and craft-related tasks performed by prisoners assigned to workplaces of other legal entities or private individuals.

VH-06 Tailoring and upholstery workshop – an in-house production center where boxer shorts, bed linen, and other uniform components for the Corps are sewn. The workshop also produces seating sets, upholstered sofas, armchairs, and chairs, repairs furniture, upholstered interior doors, etc.

The Therapeutic and Recreational Center of the Corps of Prison and Court Guard in Kováčová forms an integral organizational and budgetary part of the prison.

PRISON PERSONNEL

For the purpose of fulfilling service and work-related duties, the prison has an established staffing structure of 253 positions for prison officers and 58 positions for employees performing work in the public interest.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

In the field of international cooperation, the prison has, for several decades, maintained a partnership with Kuřim Prison, Brno-Venkov District, Czech Republic, based on a signed Cooperation Agreement. Both partner prisons have long been committed to actively fulfilling the terms of the agreement, with the aim of developing and deepening international cooperation and exchanging valuable experience.