JUSTICE Minister Daniel Lipšic said Slovak jails measured up well to European Union standards after he had lunch in one prison and tested a prisoner's bed by sitting down on it.
Lipšic visted Slovak jails November 25 and in one prison, in the eastern Slovak district of Košice-Šaca, he tried the stuffed cabbage that was served for lunch to prisoners that day.
According to press reports Lipšic was unhappy, however, that in the Košice-Šaca jail only 30 per cent of the prisoners worked while serving their penalties.
On average about 60 per cent of prisoners work while in jail. They are usually employed in seasonal agricultural jobs, work at construction sites or help out sewing shoes and clothes.