The new justice minister on Thursday promised action to tackle overcrowding at the central prisons complex, but said that building a new facility from scratch was not currently in the pipeline.

Constantinos Fitiris held his first meeting with delegates of the police’s Isotita trade union representing prison wardens.

According to a statement released by Isotita later, the minister pledged to “answer with actions” to the problems faced by the department of corrections.

During the talks, which the union called “sincere”, the minister acknowledged that the current premises of the central prisons are not fit for purpose.

Fitiris conceded that “a facility built in 1890 cannot be converted into a modern one”.

He told the union delegates that although switching to a new facility is not “in an immediate trajectory of implementation” at this time, there would be developments on this matter – developments which the union would learn of “from the results”.

However Fitiris promised to quickly deal with the problem of understaffing – sometime in the next few days the ministry would announce vacancies for the hiring of 90 prison wardens.

The trade union welcomed the news but said this should only be the beginning – they want an organisational restructuring in line with international standards, ensuring there is no less than one warden per 15 inmates.

The leadership of the ministry also agreed with a proposal to set up a rapid response and containment team at the prisons – they would be deployed to carry out surprise inspections as well as handle any outbreaks of violence.

Isotita also asked for measures to ease overcrowding at the prisons – such as the introduction of alternatives to incarceration like having convicts do community service or placing them under house arrest with ankle monitors.

The union reiterated their demand for wardens to be able to voluntarily retire after 25 years of service, due to the “stressful nature” of the job.

In a report last week, the Council of Europe’s committee for the prevention of torture warned of “serious problems” at Cyprus’ central prisons, adding that it harbours “grave concerns” over “the high levels of inter-prisoner violence” at the facility.

The report came shortly after another inmate, a 35-year-old Egyptian national, was killed following a violent altercation with another prisoner.