Văcărești Prison

Văcărești Prison was a prison located in Bucharest, Romania.

The prison, situated in the southern part of the city, was established in 1865 within the former Văcărești Monastery, where defendants found guilty of press offenses had been held since 1861. It was a place of triage, detaining prisoners whose cases were ongoing. Prisoners also included men sentenced to a maximum of five years and women, who lived in the former abbot's house, up to three months; those with longer terms were sent to Mislea Prison. Two doctors were hired in 1868, marking the start of medical care at the facility. In 1898, a section for mentally ill prisoners opened, followed by a dental office. By 1930, there was a full-fledged hospital for infectious diseases, including a tuberculosis ward and two operating rooms. The country's first specialized guards unit began work at Văcărești in 1928. In 1931, there were two floors with eighteen cells each. During the interwar period, there were common criminals and political prisoners: press offenders and national security threats, especially members of the banned Romanian Communist Party. The latter included Gheorghe Cristescu, Ilie Moscovici, Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea and Mihail Cruceanu, arrested during the party's founding congress in 1921. Future communist leaders incarcerated there include Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Alexandru Drăghici, Alexandru Bârlădeanu and Chivu Stoica. Political prisoners could receive visitors weekly and were allowed to work on roads, sewers and in the prison workshops.[1]

From the establishment of a communist-led government in 1945 until its closure in 1973, Văcărești was a transit prison for both common criminals and political detainees. Those tried alongside Ion Antonescu spent time there, as did Mircea Vulcănescu and a host of other figures, many of them in administrative detention or with expired sentences. By late 1953, the overcrowded prison held between 2800 and 3000 people,[2] with 100 to 300 per cell.[3] Prisoners were not allowed correspondence, food packages or visits.[4] Văcărești was just one of three hospitals within the prison system. There were 560 patients in 1956, assisted by fourteen male nurses with minimal training and occasionally visited by doctors who did little more than hand out pills. In many cases, the elderly patients suffered from incurable diseases and were confined to a hospital bed until they died.[5]