systemic problems Shortage of funds, overcrowding, no space Observations made during the 2019 visitations paint a dramatic picture of conditions in which inmates of psychiatric hospitals are kept. Patients are accommodated in corridors, in day centres, maximum capacity of patient bedrooms is increased, access to patients’ beds from three sides is limited, etc. Apart from purely financial factors, also judges are liable for overcrowding at psychiatric wards, as they issue decisions to place a person there without getting an opinion of a Psychiatric Committee for Security Measures. This results in placing people in hospitals which have reported that they cannot admit more patients. As a consequence of the above mentioned shortcomings the inmates in whose periodic opinions doctors recommended their transfer to facilities with basic security measures are kept at wards featuring reinforced security measures as there is no space in hospitals indicated by the Psychiatric Commission for Security Measures which ensure basic security measures. This leads to limitation of inmate’s civil liberties, delays his/her leaving the hospital, prolongs detention, makes it impossible to use leaves which are admissible at the basic security ward and causes break in therapy. It is not recommended for a patient – who has been admitted to be detained at a basic security ward – to be kept in the increased security ward. In such case it is necessary to at least transfer patients to a basic security ward or to a general psychiatric ward, in order to ensure more freedom to inmates and relevant rights which result from being kept in the basic security ward. ☞The courts should absolutely consult the Psychiatric Committee for Security Measures and take account of its opinions concerning admission to hospitals which provide treatment in secured conditions. Since 2012 the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture has been raising the issue of underfunding of psychiatric hospital treatment and consequences thereof115. According to the findings of the CHR and the NMPT, the crux of the problem is in the National Health Fund’s failure to take account in its financial assumptions of the fact that apart from psychiatric treatment the hospital must also ensure more costly physical disorder treatment (which is necessary especially for elderly people), medications (medicinal products, insulin for diabetics, etc.), as well as transportation to necessary appointments. 115 See Reports of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the operation in Poland of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, https://www.rpo.gov.pl/kategoria-prawna-i-organizacyjna/krajowy-mechanizm-prewencji-raporty-rpo. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2019 51