Improvement of the situation of the elderly, sick or other disabled persons in prisons The Ombudsman has noted the need to respect the situation of convicts with mobility issues and those with serious health issues, and proposed that they must be appropriately accommodated to provide them with the conditions to serve their sentences appropriately. Some meetings and consultations were also held in order for the Prison Administration of the Republic of Slovenia together with the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities to provide better opportunities in this field, with the aim of temporarily resolving the accommodation of elderly, ill and disabled persons who need special care and suitable adjustments to their living space. Already in previous reports and in the 2014 report, we discussed problems encountered by elderly, sick, physically disabled and other disabled prisoners (disabled persons in prisons) while serving their sentence. Similar complaints were also observed in 2015. We pointed out to the competent authorities that the state must ensure that all prisoners serve their sentence in conditions appropriate to their (remaining) physical capacity. If a state deprives an individual of their freedom, it must also ensure that the deprivation of liberty and enforcement of penalties are conducted in a way that respect human personality and dignity. In our opinion, it is even more critical to observe the situation of persons who may be affected due to health problems and/or disability. Appropriate placement and living conditions where such persons can serve their sentences decently must be ensured; otherwise, this may be considered inhuman or degrading treatment and could be understood as a violation of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. 2.3 RESTRICTION OF PERSONAL LIBERTY As was written in the 2014 report, we emphasised in the cases we discussed that the aforementioned requires careful consideration on the suspension of sentence, and particularly the consideration of circumstances if living conditions compliant with human dignity or their medical needs can be ensured to concrete prisoners when serving sentence. Noticeable progress was made in 2015 in terms of regulations in this field. The Act amending the Enforcement of Penal Sentences Act (ZIKS-1) modified the practise of requesting the termination of a custodial sentence. Now, based on the request of a convict, their close family members, guardian or a custodian, a director of an institution can, if there are no reservations with regard to security, terminate a custodial sentence, if the requisite health care cannot be provided to the convict due to illness, injury, or treatment other than hospitalisation, and also if the convict is not able to carry out at least one of the basic necessities without assistance, i.e. in accordance with the act on pension and disability insurance, and if the institution cannot provide such assistance. With paragraph two of Article 60 of the ZIKS-1 the state made it mandatory for convicts who need additional assistance at carrying out their basic needs due to their age, illness or disability, i.e. in the form of care or social care, to be able to reside in adapted premises or a section of one of the institutions. Therefore, it is planned to establish such a unit in Dob pri Mirni prison for men and in Ig Prison for women. Financial, staff and spatial conditions must be guaranteed by 1 June 2016 (Article 91 of the ZIKS1F). We will actively monitor the realisation of this commitment. We will also monitor the adoption of the agreement on mutual cooperation in the procedure for accommodating persons who have been discharged from prison and whose custodial sentence has been terminated in retirement homes and special social care institutions, which was announced for the end of 2015. We were notified by the Prison Administration in 2015 that the draft of this agreement had been harmonised with the amended ZIKS-1F, which was sent to the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs for further harmonisation at the end of October 2015. Approval of privileges: regarding approval of benefits for convicts, paragraph one of Article 77 of the ZIKS-1 stipulates that prison directors may approve certain benefits to a convict for their active participation and success in fulfilling their personal plan. According to the ZIKS-1, one of these privileges is making visits outside the institution and the freedom to leave the institution, but not to the environment where the convict committed the criminal offence. Paragraph three of this Article stipulates that the decision to grant a particular privilege must be based on the convict’s personality, flight risk, type and method of their offence, method of sentencing, 50 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 potential other criminal proceedings and other circumstances indicating a possibility that approved benefits may be abused. It is also necessary to consider the response of the environment in which the offence was committed, especially the response of victims. During consideration of a complaint sent by a female victim of domestic violence, i.e. that the perpetrator (former partner) still presented a danger during his exits from prison, it was found that the prison had not obtained all the information needed to make a decision on privileges outside the prison when deciding on granting leave to the convict. Therefore, the Ombudsman agreed with the standpoint of the Prison Administration that in the process of determining the freedom to exit the prison in cases of domestic violence, the competent social work centre must always be requested to form a multidisciplinary team that can establish the necessary circumstances, i.e. related to the victim and the convict, and which then prepares a plan for victim protection and a plan for implementing benefits outside the prison for the convict. 2.3.5 Forensic Psychiatry Unit (Unit) In the 2014 report, we once again recommended that regulations on the work of the Forensic Psychiatry Unit should be prepared as soon as possible (recommendation no. 29). Unfortunately, this recommendation has still not been realised. In the phase of public discussion on the proposed Rules on the implementation of security measures of compulsory psychiatric treatment and care in a health establishment of compulsory psychiatric treatment outside an institution we commended their preparation, and at the same time warned about the unacceptable delay in the preparation phase. Since the Unit began operations, the Ombudsman has observed that the implementation of security measure is insufficiently determined by norms; therefore, the Ombudsman has invested a great deal of effort to have deficiencies in this field immediately. It is encouraging that capacities at the Unit increased in January 2015, since an additional half of section E (sub-unit E1) with a capacity of 18 beds was opened, and this has greatly relieved the existing sub-units F1 and F2, as well as improved the living conditions of all patients. We expect the remaining part of the section and capacities of the Unit to be open for operation, so that the Unit will start working at full capacity. At the beginning of 2015, we considered several complaints concerning ill-treatment by the Unit’s staff. Allegations referred to the conduct of judicial and medical staff. These allegations included excessive use of force by judicial police officers and medical staff when a person is already under control and settled. We proposed that the management of the psychiatry unit appropriately verify the allegations and inform us of their findings, as well as potential additional measures taken to improve the situation at the Forensic Psychiatry Unit. The management followed our proposal and explained that they had received no complaint, with regard to allegations of excessive use of force made by patients in that period, and that they were implementing special security measures according to the ZDZdr provisions. Example: Untimely responses of the court violated the rights of a terminally ill person The Unit for Forensic Psychiatry of the Department of Psychiatry at Maribor University Medical Centre (Unit) informed the Ombudsman on 7 July 2015 of their letter to Celje District Court of 2 June 2015. With this letter, they proposed the termination of the security measure of obligatory psychiatric treatment and care of a 92-year-old patient who was extremely physically debilitated due to illness and was dying in very unsuitable situation. The Unit informed the court about the serious state of his health on 11 May 2015. The security measure was imposed by a decision of Celje District Court of 9 June 2014, ref. no. III K 13711/2014, in connection with a decision of Celje Higher Court, ref. no. I Kp 13711/2014 of 17 July 2014, because the patient had attempted manslaughter, according to paragraph one of Article 115 in connection with paragraph one of Article 34 and paragraph two of Article 29 of the Criminal Code (KZ-1) in insanity. The security measure commenced in the Unit on 22 August 2014. Based on paragraph two of Article 70a of the KZ-1, the court is obliged to terminate enforced treatment and protection in a health-care institution when it finds that such institutionalisation is no longer necessary. In six ANNUAL REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA FOR 2015 51 2.3 RESTRICTION OF PERSONAL LIBERTY We emphasised these findings when we sent our comments on the preparation of the Rules on the exercise of the powers and duties of judicial police officers, because we believe that the preparation of the Rules is an opportunity to make improvements in this field.