prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...
located in
Timișoara
Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...
,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. It is intended for convicts with sentences of up to three years, classified under open regime, semi-open regime and
preventive detention
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non- punitive purposes, most often to prevent further criminal acts.
Preventive detention sometimes involves the detention of a convicted criminal who has served their sente ...
.
History
The current prison was built after the demolition of the walls of the
Timișoara Fortress
Timișoara Fortress (, , , , ) is a historical fortress in western Romania around which the town of Timișoara was built.
It is presumed that there was an earlier Fortification, earthworks fortification built by the Pannonian Avars, Avars, but ...
, and the first written evidence of the existence of a place where prisoners were kept can be found in the ''Annals of the Kingdom of Hungary'' from 1514. In 1728,
Count Claude Florimond de Mercy
Count Claudius Florimund de Mercy (1666 – 29 June 1734) was an Imperial field marshal, born at Longwy in Lorraine, now in France. His grandfather was the Bavarian field marshal Franz Freiherr von Mercy.
Mercy entered the Austrian ar ...
, commander of Timișoara and governor of
Banat
Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...
, founds the building intended for the Provincial Court, the arrested being moved to the cellars of the building. In 1807, Emperor Francis I orders their imprisonment in casemate no. 10 of bastion no. 1, and from the completion of the new construction, in 1810, all the prisoners are kept here, until 1907, when it is demolished. It was also then that the construction of the Court-Martial Palace (the current Tribunal and Military Prosecutor's Office) and the military prison (the current headquarters of the Timișoara Prison) was completed.
During the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
, the prison housed both common criminals and suspected activists of the banned
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...
. From 1937, the common criminals had sentences of up to two years, the rest being sent elsewhere. Seventeen communists, both men and women, were sent to both prisons by court order in September 1942, including
Leontin Sălăjan
Leontin Sălăjan (; 19 June 1913 – 28 August 1966) was a Romanian communist military and political leader.
Born in Santău Commune, Satu Mare County (then in Szilágy County, Austria-Hungary),
Twenty-five prisoners died of unknown causes between 1949 and 1955. There were also cases of summary executions, for example in August 1949, when seven members of the anti-communist resistance movement, told they were being taken from Timișoara to
Aiud Prison
Aiud Prison is a prison complex in Aiud, Alba County, located in central Transylvania, Romania. It is infamous for the treatment of its political inmates, especially during World War II under the rule of Ion Antonescu, and later under the Communi ...
, were shot in a nearby forest on orders from
Alexandru Nicolschi
Alexandru Nicolschi (born Boris Grünberg, his chosen surname was often rendered as Nikolski or Nicolski; , ; June 2, 1915 – April 16, 1992) was a Romanian communist activist, Soviet agent and officer, and Securitate chief under the Communist r ...
. The prison was mainly a transit center before detainees were sent elsewhere, and suffered from chronic overcrowding. Its inmates, both partisans and illegal border-crossers, were subjected to harsh interrogation by the
Securitate
The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...
secret police; vicious beatings resulted in weeks of incapacitation. Rations were limited to tea, soup and bread. Conditions led some prisoners to attempt suicide or go on hunger strike. The political prisoners were transferred to Aiud and
Gherla Prison
Gherla Prison is a penitentiary located in the Romanian city of Gherla (), in Cluj County. The prison dates from 1785; it is infamous for the treatment of its political inmates, especially during the Communist regime. In Romanian slang, the generi ...
s following the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...
Titus Popovici
Titus Viorel Popovici (16 May 1930 – 29 November 1994) was a Romanian screenwriter and author.
Biography
He graduated from the University of Bucharest in 1953. Two years later, he published his first novel, ''Străinul'' (The Stranger). Hi ...
Ion Ioanid
Ion Ioanid (28 March 1926 – 12 October 2003) was a Romanian dissident and writer. Ioanid was a political prisoner of the Communism in Romania, communist-led regime after World War II, who spent 12 years in prison and labor camps. He is best k ...
.
Recent history
New holding pavilions and auxiliary spaces began to be built in 1995.
The closed-circuit TV channel Canal 7 Popa Șapcă began to air in 2002, followed by a radio channel in 2013; both are dedicated to the information and constructive recreation of the inmates. In 2008, the first job exchange for prisoners was organized, which became a constant event, held in partnership with local institutions. As of 2017, almost 60% of the inmates worked within the prison or in dozens of private companies in Timișoara.