Tallinn Prison was founded in 1919 when the Patarei marine fortress was turned into a Central Prison. As the Patarei premises became unfit for use over the years, the Central Prison was merged with the Tallinn Prison located at the Magasini Street in 2003 that is operating on a prisoner-of-war camp territory which was established in 1944-1949. In 29004, the Maardu Prison was merged with the Tallinn Prison. The former Maardu Prison now houses the Health Department of the Tallinn Prison where also in-patient medical treatment is provided.
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In 1996, the development plan of prison service was approved which stipulated the construction of modern regional prisons in Ida-Viru County, Tartu County and Harju County and a new prison hospital. New prisons are needed in order to turn the prisons from a place where people are simply detained during a certain period of time into a place where purposeful work is performed with prisoners so that they could cope in a law-abiding manner when they are released. Such an objective was also prescribed in the Estonian Guidelines for Development of Criminal Policy until 2010 that was approved by the Riigikogu.
However, the analysis showed that the objectives of state criminal policy cannot be achieved by merely limiting to the renovation of the Tallinn Prison because the registered immovable is too small and is located in the Tallinn city centre. That is why it was decided to build a new modern prison.
When choosing a location for the new prison it was considered whether to build the prison 1) on the territory or in direct proximity of some existing prison, or 2) into a completely new region. When choosing the region one decisive argument was the fact that the Tallinn Prison is a preliminary investigation prison. This, however, means that the location of prison should definitely be in Tallinn or in direct proximity of Tallinn in order to perform preliminary investigative activities with persons held in custody.
A state land reserve was located in immediate proximity of the Health Department the size of which enabled to build a prison complying with requirements. There is also a better access to Maardu than to other regional prisons (Tartu and Viru). This allows to solve the treatment of the patients of all prisons in Maardu and there is no longer any need to build a new central hospital of prisons. The planned location of prison in industrial area also enables to engage prisoners in work. The foundation of prison in Maardu enables to recruit the prison staff first of all from among the population of Maardu but also from among the population of Tallinn. Also the Maardu City Government supported the foundation of the Tallinn Prison new buildings in Maardu based on the employment of Maardu and the development of town.
As the prison buildings do not meet the requirements of present-day prison work and are hopelessly outdated (for example, in 20005 the boiler house chimney collapsed and in 2009 a part of the prison barrier collapsed), and are not suitable to be in the direct proximity of residential district, the Government of the Republic approved on 29th September 2005 a proposal to build the new Tallinn Prison in Maardu.
The new Tallinn Prison has been planned as a cell-type prison. There will be a prison, a house of detention and the Health Department of the Tallinn Prison that is currently located in Maardu. After the prison is completed, the Harku Women’s’ Prison will be closed and its prisoners will be transferred to the women’s department of the new Tallinn Prison. According to the plans, the prison will have 1000 places and the house of detention 150. The open prison will have 100 places and the Health Department 70.
