The prison is due to be fully completed by September 2025 at a cost of almost €126 million.
On Thursday, August 15, a large crowd of politicians and construction workers celebrated the topping out with music at the construction site. The biggest challenge now will not be the construction itself, but recruiting staff. A wider national campaign to attract skilled labor to the new prison is planned for next year.
"Today we have over 200 people on the construction site. From the first day, there have been more than 1000 people who have put their hand to work here, and almost 100 different labor contractors," said Dāvis Eniks, CEO and Chairman of the Board of SIA "Citrus Solutions".
He was pleased that the works were completed within the planned budget and faster than expected, boasting that most of the construction materials were made in Latvia.
"It is very satisfying to see that all the buildings have been built, we have reached the highest point - the topping out, we can say thank you to everyone involved. The feeling is, of course, very positive, because we have finished the work faster than we had originally planned. We are celebrating this ceremony three months earlier than originally planned."
All six buildings are now complete, the builder explained. The prison is due to be fully completed by September 2025.
"We are now moving on to the interior work, preparing the communication rooms, building the floors and walls, including all the equipment for the buildings. We are also actively doing landscaping, we will do as much as we can manage this year and then continue next year."
Dmitrijs Kaļins, Head of the Prison Administration, stressed that after the completion of the construction works, which is expected in autumn next year, the first employees will arrive at the prison.
"The prison will be put into operation in autumn next year, then we will use the prison for about six months without prisoners, only staff, because the staff have to get to know the premises, the geography, the layout, how all the security systems work before we will be ready to take the first prisoners," Kaļins said.
While the construction is progressing smoothly, the next big challenge will be attracting staff and housing, said the prison administration chief.
"We are working closely with both the Ministry of Justice and the Liepāja City Council to find bonuses and ways to attract staff, and early next year we will launch a wider recruitment and search campaign," said Kaļins.
The new prison is expected to have 450 employees. Unlike the existing prisons, more staff will be involved in the re-socialisation process.
The new prison will have 600 double cells for 1,200 prisoners. The prison will be surrounded by a five-meter-high opaque fence and two four-meter-high transparent fences with barbed wire. The old prisons will be gradually closed down when the transfer of prisoners from other buildings to the new Liepāja prison starts, but it is not yet clear what the procedure will be for closing the old prisons, which will close first, and when.
