Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011
4.3. Penitentiary establishments
– Setting-up a play corner for children who visit the establishment. The idea behind this
is to change children’s negative image of penitentiary establishments, and to create the
best possible conditions for a child staying in the company of both parents. Such image
preserved in children’s memory should encourage them to frequently visit their parents
and to maintain the parent-child bond, disturbed by the fact that a parent is serving
time in a penitentiary establishment (Prison in Kluczbork, External Ward of PDC in
Opole, PDC in Grójec, PDC in Radom, Prison in Płock);
– Training the detainees in providing premedical first aid (Prison in Jasło);
– Designating cells “with increased level of inmates self-help”. The task of prisoners who
voluntarily consent to be placed in such cells is to pay special attention to inmates who in
depressed mood. Employing such practice prevents suicidal attempts (prison in Jasło);
– Acquiring European Union subsidies for modernisation of the establishment (Prison
in Jasło);
– Granting prisoners a possibility to use TV sets owned by a given establishment. The
schedule for placing these TV sets in individual cells is approved by the Director of
the establishment, and is displayed in a generally accessible place. The TV sets may be
used by prisoners in cells where none of the inmates owns their private TV set (PDC
in Giżycko).
4.4. Rooms for detained persons or persons brought to sober up
– Employing a physician who would be on duty daily from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. Pursuant to
the agreement between the Municipal Police Chief in Kalisz and the Kalisz City Council,
compensation of the physician is to be financed by the city. Additionally, the Council
proposed to cover all expenditure related to maintaining the rooms in an adequate sanitary condition. According to the employees of the National Preventive Mechanism, the
observed practice is recommended mostly for the reasons of safety of persons brought
to sober up and placed in Police rooms (Police unit in Kalisz).
5. Assessment of legal acts
Activities of the Human Rights Defender, acting as the National Preventive Mechanism241, are not limited to preventive visits, but also include issuing opinions about drafted
legislation and about applicable legal acts. Pursuant to Article 19(c) of the OPCAT, the
Hereinafter referred to as: “NPM” or “Mechanism.”
241
142
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents