Hungarian Prison Service

The Hungarian Prison Service is an armed law enforcement agency under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Interior of Hungary. Its central-level administrative body is the Hungarian Prison Service Headquarters, which controls 32 penal institutions, 10 limited companies and four auxiliary institutions. 

The Hungarian Prison Service executes the court sentences that are associated with some degree of deprivation of liberty (e.g. prison sentences, defaulted fines, non-criminal detention etc.). In this role, it manages and controls the daily lives of more than 18 000 inmates, housed within one of the 32 penal institutions currently operating in Hungary.

The system in total employs more than 8 000 staff members, the majority of which are law enforcement professionals, mostly performing tasks directly associated with one of the aspects of incarceration: security, case management, healthcare, registry and several other disciplines. The remaining personnel are law enforcement civil servants performing indispensable auxiliary services, such as pastoral care, therapy sessions, various courses etc.

Our goals are: 

To maintain order and security in all our facilities;
To provide a humane and fruitful approach towards the management and care of inmates;
To grant an opportunity for personal development;
To remain lawful and professional in all our endeavors;
And – as a result – to reduce recidivism.

We work towards achieving these goals with highly qualified staff, state-of-the-art technological advancements and a constant effort to improve. We strive to provide a respected, duly paid and transparent career for our colleagues and an alternative outlook at a better future for our prisoners.

(You can click the respective menu item in the dropdown menu to get more information on our facilities, or you can click on the hotlinks included in the text itself.)