In their letter, prisoners allege that Theodoropoulou had repeatedly sought help, protesting daily at the prison clinic, only to be ignored. They state that her death cannot be attributed merely to “bureaucratic failings” but to the prison system itself, which they claim systematically neglected her until her only escape was “the string around her neck.”
The full letter from Korydallos inmates:
“On the night of 25 October, our fellow prisoner, 22-year-old Maria Theodoropoulou, was found by guards hanging in her cell at the Korydallos prison hospital, Agios Pavlos. That night, Maria did not wait for the iron door to open; she escaped, once and for all, from a system that tortured her daily, taking her life bit by bit.
Maria’s final hours were the culmination of a painful cycle: from Korydallos Women’s Prison to Agios Pavlos hospital, then to Dromokaitio psychiatric facility, and back again. The string around her neck wasn’t just tied by her hands but by a system that failed her—a system of prosecutors, doctors, guards, and prison officials who ignored her pleas for help.
Our fellow prisoner was not failed by bureaucratic missteps but by a prison system that routinely operates as a ‘breeding ground for obedience,’ silencing and subjugating those who resist. For those deemed unruly, it can become a slaughterhouse that extinguishes lives with calculated indifference.
This same indifference took the life of Alfons Doçi, found dead in Korydallos’ men’s wing in June. Here, for us who are prisoners in this ‘hell,’ it’s painfully clear: neither Maria’s nor Alfons’ lives were unique to this cycle of abuse. Acting in the same way and expecting different results, as Einstein warned, is madness. And yet, for the Ministry and the Secretariat of Criminal Policy, it seems the lives of prisoners are valued too low to warrant systemic change.
Maria’s death, like Alfons’, will likely be weighed on a ‘communications scale’ and deemed of little consequence. We, her fellow prisoners, however, know the truth. We refuse to let this tragedy be swept aside, and we won’t forget who the real moral perpetrators are. In honour of Maria and Alphonse, we will keep shouting the truth: the prison system killed them.”
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