When the communist regime took power, convicts were divided into two prison buildings: the New
Prison, built by the Italians in 1940, and the Old Prison, built in 1930 on Mine Peza Street, to which the
so-called ‘Koçi [Xoxe]’s cells’, named after the then Minister of the Interior, were added in 1946.
It generally served as a place of detention for those that were under the investigation in Tirana, or as a temporary detention for prisoners who had received sentences from the courts of various districts before being taken to the camp designated for them.
According to a record from the People’s Defence Division, in 1946, a staff of 123 people (103 soldiers,
15 non-commissioned officers, five officers) served for both prisons in Tirana. According to 1950 reports,
both of Tirana’s prisons had a capacity of 448 (287 political and 151 ordinary) prisoners, while inside
there were about 1,800 prisoners, most of them political. Tuberculosis and scabies were the predominant
diseases in 1950. In 1954, Tirana’s prisons housed prisoners from the districts of Tirana, Durrës, Elbasan,
and Dibra, approximately 440 people. They had a joint command, which was in the ‘old prison’. In both
prisons, at the end of 1954, there were 347 political and 281 ordinary prisoners. Generally, political
prisoners or detainees stayed in Prison No. 5, while ordinary prisoners in Prison No. 2.
In summary, this is the chronology up to this point of time:
– Prison No. 5 (new prison), 1944–1958.
– Prison No. 2 (old prison), 1954–1958.
– Unit 314, from the merger of two prisons, 1958–1991.
Prisoners
- Dom Nikollë Luli (-)
- Hans Trochel (-)
- Jusuf Vrioni (-)
- Muharrem Bejleri (-)
- Rrok Gera (1945-1958)
- Sante Gemelli (-)
- Telemak Dilo (-)
- Ylli Kanina (-)