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NORWEGIAN PARLIAMENTARY OMBUDSMAN
National Preventive Mechanism
ANNUAL REPORT 2016
Stavanger Prison
Interviews showed that the majority of the women
found serving their sentence in Stavanger Prison
unproblematic. The prison's continuous focus on
dignified conditions for women and on ensuring that
they feel safe during their imprisonment is assumed
to be an important reason for this.
The prison has prepared an action plan for inmates
aged 18–21. Young inmates were given priority for
work and school places.
All the sections complied with the CPT’s recommendations for a minimum of 8 hours outside the
cell each day.
A review of administrative decisions showed that
the security cells were used a total of 25 times in the
period from 2015 to June 2016. The supervision log
showed that inmates placed in security cells were
under regular supervision by prison officers and the
health service. The prison’s procedures for the use of
security cells stated that full body searches are only
to be carried out if strictly necessary and on the basis
of an individual assessment. This is in line with the
CPT's recommendations.
The inmates described a mostly good environment
at the sections and a strong sense of security. The
staff received good feedback.
There is a high level of awareness among staff
that body searches should be conducted and urine
samples collected by persons of the same sex as
the inmate.
Female inmates usually only had access to a male
doctor. From a preventive healthcare point of view, it is
important that inmates do not refrain from consulting
a doctor or giving an honest description of their health
problems because they find having an open dialogue
with a male doctor problematic.
The supervision log contained several notes from
visits by the health service in which it seemed that
health personnel had recommended that a decision to
use a security cell should be upheld. It is emphasised
that health personnel should always treat inmates as
patients, and that the health personnel should never
be involved in decisions to uphold the use of coercive
measures. There was no regular practice of visiting
inmates in solitary confinement daily.
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