Mislea Prison

Mislea Prison was a prison located in Mislea, Prahova County, Romania.

The prison was established in 1869 on the site of the Mislea Monastery. It housed minors until 1924, when it became a women's prison. That year, three workshops were opened, for weaving, carpet-making and clothes-making. The women were common criminals as well as political prisoners placed in a special section: spies, Iron Guard affiliates and Romanian Communist Party activists. Liuba Chișinevschi and Constanța Crăciun fell into the latter category. From 1944 to 1952, the prisoners were both ordinary and political; only political from 1952 to 1956; and, in theory, only ordinary afterwards.[1]

By and large, conditions were less harsh than in the average prison during the early communist regime. After 1949, political prisoners were allowed into the workshops, producing traditional crafts, bridal dresses and Persian rugs, then using the money to buy food from a nearby farm. However, work eventually came to exceed twelve hours a day. Elisabeta Rizea and Niculina, the wife of Ion Mihalache, were among those permitted to weave carpets. “Secret” prisoners, not even allowed to take a walk, included Maria Antonescu (1950-1955), Arlette Coposu and Maria Golescu. Non-working detainees were served small portions of barely edible food.[2]

The prisoners were as young as school age, and one was brought there shortly after being born, the posthumous daughter of an anti-communist resistance movement fighter, interned along with her mother. There were seventeen large rooms with a capacity of 527 inmates. One ten-minute shower was allowed weekly. Physical beatings were rare, but other punishments frequent: food deprivation, being forced to stand from 5 in the morning until 10 at night, vaginal inspections and isolation in freezing rooms. Letters, packages and visits were forbidden. The warden from 1944 to 1953, a veteran communist, stands out as a positive character in memoirs: she hated informants, procured medicines for the prisoners and tolerated the celebration of Christmas.[3]