Last year, paid cells in pre-trial detention centers brought in 16 million hryvnias in revenue: Ministry of Justice
It is planned to open new paid cells in detention centers across the country. In 2024, the provision of such services to persons in custody brought 16 million hryvnias to the state budget. About this reported Yevhen Pikalov, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine.
According to the official, paid cells with improved detention conditions in pretrial detention centers of the State Criminal Enforcement Service are in high demand — 93%.
“In general, as of May, there were 83 paid cells for 201 beds in the pretrial detention centers of the State Criminal Enforcement Service of Ukraine.” – said the government official.
Pikalov noted that the expansion of such cameras is planned in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih pretrial detention centers.
“In 2024, revenues in the amount of 16,374.1 thousand hryvnias were received for paid services for providing places in paid cells, the Kyiv pre-trial detention center received the most funds – 7,779.9 thousand hryvnias, Odesa pre-trial detention center – 1,680.7 thousand hryvnias and Lviv UVP (No. 19) – 1,050.0 thousand hryvnias. During January-April 2025 for paid services for providing places paid cells received 6,223.4 thousand hryvnias, among which the largest incomes were received in the Kyiv SIZO – 2,673.0 thousand hryvnias and Odesa SIZO – 770.0 thousand hryvnias”, – explained the deputy minister.
At the same time, he emphasized that there are no separate conditions for high-ranking officials:
“I can accept that there are some manifestations of corruption. But internal security units are created for that purpose, to detect and fight this phenomenon.”
We will remind you that in May 2020, the Ministry of Justice launched a project of paid cameras in pre-trial detention centers. As Minister Denys Malyuska explained at the time, the idea was aimed at reducing corruption — instead of bribes, money for more comfortable conditions should go to the budget — and also to find additional funding for chronically underfunded detention facilities.
