Estonian Prison System

13. June 2008

At the moment there are five prisons in Estonia: Tallinna, Tartu, Murru, Viru and Harku. The big changes in Estonian prsion system started with the building of Tartu Prison, which was the first chamber-system prison in Estonia. Until then in most pruisons prisoners lived in big rooms and could freely communicate with each other. The purpose of chamber-system prisons is to lessen the communication and spreading of criminal knowledge between prisoners.

The change from camp-type prisons to chamber-system also supports the efforts to resocialize prisoners. That goal is also supported by the principle of locality - the prisoner is imprsioned in the prison that is nearest to his home, so that his social connections and ties with the family remain strong and help him/her to lead a law-abiding life. Resocializing of a prisoner is done through  offering possibilities to study and work during imprisonment. Prisoners also have possibilities to use the services of social workers, psycholgists, medical personal and chaplains.