Courts to Seek Solution to Prisoner Complaint Logjam
The Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice are looking for an effective way to handle the growing number of prisoner complaints that are choking the nation's administrative courts.
Last year Estonia's administrative courts received 1,457 complaints from prison inmates, 300 more than the previous year, Postimees wrote. They make up about 40 percent of cases that administrative court judges handle annually.
The problem is particularly acute in the Tartu administrative court, whose jurisdiction covers the Viru and Tartu prisons. There each of the nine judges has to contend with five to six inmate complaints per day.
Though a large portion of these are nuisance complaints, about five percent of them are upheld, showing that there are many legitimate cases in the mix.
Supreme Court Chairman Märt Rask said that the matter would soon be discussed at a meeting with the relevant Undersecretaries of Justice and administrative court representatives.
Steve Roman