Welcome to the Hungarian Prison Service's official website. We hope that you find the website informative and it will serve as a helpful tool in understanding the work being carried out in our prisons.

According to legal definitions the Hungarian Prison Service is an armed law enforcement agency that carries out measures and sentences of imprisonment and criminal procedure enforcement measures and also executes confinements of fine defaulters. The Prison Service is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior. The Minister of Interior is responsible for the Prison Service and also controls the employment of inmates in the limited companies operated by the Prison Service. The supervision of lawful operation is exercised by the Prosecutors' Office.

As an law enforcement agency we employ about 8000 staff at 31 establishments, a Training Center, a Mental and Psychiatric Institution, a Prison Hospital and 12 limited companies, and a Headquarters Office. The organization has an annual budget of more than 161.4 million euro to run our prisons and support programmes to tackling the offending behaviour of prisoners to prepare them for eventual release.

In compliance with the effective legal regulations the overall capacity of our establishments is lower than the accommodated number of the prisoners; therefore penal institutions are characterized by overcrowding. At present the average overcrowding rate is 139% percent.

From the overall staff employed at the Hungarian Prison Service most colleagues are uniformed (officers and non-commissioned officers), whereas some of them work as a non-uniformed civil servant or part-time employee.

Legally classified, detainees are grouped in four categories:
a. pre-trial detainees
b. convicted prisoners
c. confinement for non-criminal offences
d. forced psychiatric treatment.

Convicted prisoners are held in 3 different types of regime, most of them in medium regime. From the total number of the prisoners around 3% are juveniles. Approximately 4% of the detainees are foreign nationals.

Our mission is to perform all of our legally required obligations and contribute to the public safety of Hungary.

Our Prison Service Staff is dedicated to deliver our main objectives:
- maintaining secure custody and good order in our prisons
- caring for prisoners with humanity
- providing ample opportunity to personal development of the inmates
- reducing recidivism
- and legal conformity during the period of incarceration.

I hope you will be enjoying visiting this site and if there is information that you require and cannot find, please do not hesitate to contact us.