Jailed protesters will be packed tight

Gyms, workshops, and one-man cells with two occupants in them. Those are the prospects for protesters who are arrested and remanded in pre-trial custody during December's Copenhagen climate summit, DR News has learnt.

Arrestees who are merely detained are a police responsibility, and where they will be kept remains secret.

Protesters remanded in pre-trial custody will be incarcerated in Vestre Fængsel among other prisons, according to prison governor Peter Vesterheden.

Mattresses on the floor
He says that the prison gym can be converted to hold 40 people for a brief period of time. At night, mattresses will be placed on the floor. During the day, they can be removed to leave space for various activities, as well as for watching television.

Others will live two people in one-man cells, 8 square metres in size. One will have the bed, and another a mattress on the floor.

Peter Vesterheden admits that conditions - particularly for the 40 who will stay in the gym - will not be pleasant.

Sour times
- There is no doubt that these will be dull and fairly sour times, says Peter Vesterheden. He also notes that the Ellebæk camp, next to Red Cross Asylum Center Sandholm, will hold an additional thirty pre-trial detainees.

Conditions for the pre-trial detainees are criticized by John Hatting, President of the Prison Workers' Union.

- This is not the face we want to show as a nation. We want to give our citizens reasonable conditions, whether they are in a nursing home or in prison, says John Hatting.

Translated by Martin Lamberth