SUMMARY In Poland 75 thousand inmates are kept in the correctional institutions themselves, whereas persons covered with the mandate of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture are kept also in temporary detention centres of the police, psychiatric hospitals, residential care centres, facilities for the disabled elderly or facilities for minors. All those facilities are regularly visited by the National Mechanism representatives. The Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the operation in Poland of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in 2019 is a picture of how detention facilities operate from the perspective of observing the detainees’ rights. One has to remember that human dignity, innate and inalienable, as well as human life and health require particular protection in detention. As a country which upholds citizen rights, we must ensure and control the observance of those rights also in detention facilities. The impact of the NMPT depends chiefly on financial abilities, and on persuading the government about the need to implement the recommendations of the National Mechanism as well as national and international standards. The funds allocated for the operation of the national prevention mechanism should be treated as an investment which will result in the increase of the feeling of safety in citizens and of their trust in the state authorities. Meanwhile, in 2019, as in the previous years, the funding earmarked for preventive actions was insufficient in relation to the implementation of tasks faced by the NMPT and by OPCAT. A number of the NMPT recommendations issued in 2019 as a result of its operation were taken account of by the management of particular facilities immediately after the visits. It is important as it contributes to building collaboration in the spirit of dialogue and understanding. Unfortunately, according to this Report, detention facilities are still places where inmates are treated in unhuman and humiliating way or punished. This raises a lot of concerns, but on the other hand, it also shows the importance of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, thanks to the operation of which state authorities and citizens are informed what happens behind closed doors of detention facilities. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2019 69