"There is another world inside prisons"/ Artan Hoxha: Convicts receive live camera footage from their cells

2026-05-19 21:25:00, Aktualitet CNA

"There is another world inside prisons"/ Artan Hoxha: Convicts receive

Journalist Artan Hoxha has stated that prisons in Albania face serious security and internal control problems, claiming that drug trafficking bosses manage to exert influence even inside prisons.

In an interview with A2CNN, Hoxha said that the main challenge is not the infrastructure of penitentiary institutions, but their management and the conditions in which security staff work.

According to him, people convicted of international drug trafficking have considerable financial resources, which enables them to secure favors or benefits even within prisons.

He claimed that the use of mobile phones by convicts remains a present phenomenon, despite systems aimed at blocking the signal, while communications from prison premises, according to him, occur more frequently than is publicly acknowledged.

Hoxha emphasized that in some cases informal influence structures are created within prison institutions, adding that authorities try to maintain balance and order to avoid potential tensions or incidents among prisoners.

"You have drug lords there who have moved tons of cocaine and who have considerable amounts of money, with guards who are paid ridiculous salaries, the security of the prison is not maintained by the thickness of the wall, but by the level of staff you have inside. To put a cell phone inside, there is a fixed fee of 2 thousand euros per month, because there are wave blocking devices in prisons, but the opposite happens. He even takes you out of prison, and takes you there with a camera, makes it clear, while you are on the Live show. Inside prisons there is another world, another level of hierarchy, often the authorities are forced to make a kind of pact, or agreement with them, to offer them some facilities so that they can maintain some order inside. Because if you enter into conflict in a prison with 800 convicts, you have opened up work for yourself", declared Hoxha./ CNA