KOTSIUBYNSKE (Ukraine), Aug 6 — Ukrainian justice ministry today begun a drive to sell off its prisons, an ambitious project meant to help finance new jails for the country’s ageing penitentiary system.

Over the next 10 years the justice ministry plans to sell about a hundred prisons.

“We are starting a big sale of prisons,” Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denys Malyuska told journalists in the yard of Irpin Penal Center located in Kiev region.

The jail was the first lot in the auction that will start in the coming weeks.

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Ukraine’s penal system discontinued use of the Irpin Penal Center a year ago and more than 120 of its residents were relocated to other jails, Leonid Parkhomchuk, the center’s acting head, told AFP.

“Such places are of great interest for investors,” Malyuska said.

Old jails mostly have large areas with already installed general utilities, so they are “ready to use”, the minister explained.

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“And all neighbours will be glad to see anything here but a prison,” he added.

The Irpin Penal Center territory covers more than eight hectares and is surrounded by new multi-storey buildings as well as nature areas and a nearby railway.

Founded in 1944, it served as an open prison where inmates worked with wood and metal prior to being shut.

More than 51,000 people are held in some 130 prisons across Ukraine, according to official figures.

These are mostly old facilities with dire conditions.

Ukraine plans to sell the prisons that are out-of-use, using some the funds to build new facilities.

One of Ukraine’s most notorious jails, the Lukyanivska facility in central Kiev, which has a 150-year history, will also go on sale. — AFP