Persons placed in a special room until the effects of intoxication wear off in, for example, PS
Poreč, where these rooms do not meet even the minimum international standards, are
substantially discriminated in comparison to those persons placed in, for instance, the
Detention and Escort Unit of the Zagreb County Police Administration.
The EPSA prescribes, as one of the principal rights, the prisoners' right to maintain contact
with family members. However, all prisoners in the Republic of Croatia are not in the same
position with regard to visits from family members. In fact, female prisoners, as a rule, serve
their prison sentence in Požega State Prison, which seriously aggravates the possibility of
visits for family members, if they live in more distant areas. In such cases, family members
are subjected to a longer and more expensive trip, which also makes the bringing of smaller
children to visit more difficult. Due to overcrowding, prisoners are often placed in more
distant prisons, and in such cases priority is given to the needs of the prison system over the
needs of implementing the individual programme for the execution of prison sentence. Such
travel distances may discourage visits from family members, irrespective of whether they fail
to visit the prisoner at all, or visit him/her less frequently than to which the prisoner is
entitled. During the visits both female and male prisoners often declare that they would agree
to much worse accommodation conditions just to be closer to their family. According to the
Ministry of Justice's data, in the last five years there is a trend of decline in the number of
prisoners who were visited. As we did not receive complete data for all penal institutions for
2013, we are unable to confirm the continuation of this trend; however, from the data
collected from complaints, visits and inspections, it may be assumed that the trend of decline
has continued.
Pursuant to the EPSA, unsupervised conjugal visits are a benefit, and not the right of
prisoners. However, prisoners held in prisons without a special room for conjugal visits (e.g.
Varaždin County Prison) are deprived of the possibility to realize this benefit, which is
discriminatory as compared with other prisoners located in prisons and penitentiaries which
have such a room. Furthermore, prisoners on remand are not allowed unsupervised conjugal
visits. In these situations, persons who are not finally convicted and who are presumed
innocent are discriminated against compared with the convicted persons whose guilt was
proven. Here it is important to take account of the ECHR's view expressed in the case Varnas
v. Lithuania (2013) that the general difference in treatment of prisoners on remand and
convicted prisoners, in the part related to unsupervised conjugal visits, is not justified and
constitutes a violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 of the European Convention
for the Protection of Human Rights.
One of the reasons for unequal treatment of involuntarily hospitalised persons with mental
disorders is also the fact that some psychiatric institutions do not have a high security unit in
which the measure of involuntary medical treatment should be performed. Namely, in certain
cases it was established that it can also be one of the reasons for using the means of physical
restraint on patients. In order to avoid such situations in the future, the Ordinance on the
minimum conditions regarding premises, staffing and medical and technical equipment
needed to provide health services should prescribe the conditions regarding premises, staffing
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