29. July 08
Today, on 29 July, Rein Lang, the Minister of Justice, Jüri Pihl, the Minister of the Interior, and Jaak Saarniit, Chairman of the Management Board of Riigi Kinnisvara AS, inaugurated Viru Prison in Jõhvi.
According to Rein Lang, the Minister of Justice, the new Viru Prison is just like a prison should be. The Minister wished all the best to the staff of Viru Prison. “Prison officers have done their job well, if imprisoned persons, after having been released, never return to prison,” Lang stated.
Viru Prison unites in itself a prison and a detention house. In total the new prison has 1000 places for prisoners in up to 2-place cells; in addition it has a 75-place open prison and a 150-place detention house. At present there are 747 convicted offenders and 211 detainees in Viru Prison. In addition to the detention cells and the living quarters of the prisoners, the prison complex also has a school, a gym, rooms for social work, a chapel and workshops.
In his speech Jüri Pihl, the Minister of the Interior, thanked the Ministry of Justice and Riigi Kinnisvara AS that had managed to construct the modern prison complex in just a year and a half. According to Pihl, the new detention house belonging to the prison alleviates the problem of scarce detention house places and helps to improve the working conditions of local police officers. “It is important to preserve the high morals and will to work of the officials who fight crime locally. All the prerequisites necessary to that end have been created in the new prison,” Pihl said.
Preparations for construction of Viru Prison in Jõhvi were started in 2005 with Riigi Kinnisvara AS leading the process. On 18 September 2006 the cornerstone of the prison was laid and on 6 June 2007 the topping-out ceremony was held to celebrate the attainment of the maximum height of the prison complex. The prison was fully ready in March 2008. On 1 April this year the first prisoners arrived at Viru Prison to serve their sentence.
According to Jaak Saarniit, Chairman of the Management Board of Riigi Kinnisvara AS, the construction of Viru Prison has been the largest and the most complicated development project in the history of the company. “The timely completion of such a specific large-scale building complex, in spite of the tricky construction conditions, was accomplished thanks to the excellent cooperation between all our partners, in particular the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior, the management staff of the prison, the organisation exercising owner's supervision, the architect, the builder and other participants in the process,” Saarniit said. “Now we have to see to it that the prison complex will be in “apple-pie order” for the next thirty years,” Saarniit added.
Viru Prison has a special unit for young convicted offenders and detainees, in which approximately 160 imprisoned persons aged 14-21 years serve their sentences. To ensure better integration of the young people into normal life after their release, the unit has employed officials who specialise in dealing with the young. The concentration of young detainees in one prison creates better opportunities for the specialisation of the law enforcement authority and enables the improved spatial conditions to be utilised with a view to carrying out educational work and social programmes.
The aggregate area of the prison complex comprising 14 buildings along with the surrounding areas amounts to 16 hectares; the area of land under prison buildings is approximately 19,000 square metres. The entire area is covered with both manned and modern electronic guarding.
The prison complex was designed by Sweco Projekt AS, the architectural part was the responsibility of AS Arhitektuuribüroo Kalle Rõõmus and the builder was AS Merko Ehitus. AS Tallinna Linnaehitus exercised owner’s supervision and TSM Projektijuhtimise OÜ fulfilled the engineering duties.
The second cell-type prison of Estonia created a total of 350 new jobs in Ida-Viru County and its cost was EEK 1.2 billion.
Viru Vangla is situated in Jõhvi, on the plot of land located between Ülesõidu Street, Tallinn-Narva railway, Kose bypass and the southern border of the city of Jõhvi.
