Places visited by the National Preventive Mechanism in 2011
cannot be justified with care for ensuring safety of juveniles, since safety can be guaranteed by installing beds with appropriate safety features (e.g. fastening to the floor,
lack of sharp edges). Replying to the recommendations, the director of ECC in Ostrów
Wielkopolski informed that due to the financial situation and the lack of a relevant legal
obligation, the Centre would not be furnished with beds.
A reason for serious concern of the Mechanism during its visits to Police emergency centres for children was the lack of a change of underwear (ECC in Lublin, Elbląg and Kielce)
and a small amount of one-off underwear. Moreover, one of the juveniles in the ECC (in
Radom) had to wear pyjamas all day on the day of the visit, since he did not receive a sweatsuit. A similar situation occurred in ECCs in Olsztyn and in Poznań where no change of
underwear was provided and the clothes available were worn-out and inadequate in terms
of size. The National Preventive Mechanism recommended that the above Centres are provided with appropriate underwear and clothes for juveniles. A similar recommendation was
issued by the CPT, which after its visit to Poland in 2009, recommended that juveniles held
in police establishments for children should be able to wear appropriate daytime clothing (including for outdoor exercise).143 According to the NPM, juveniles should also be
provided with toiletries. Therefore, the NPM recommended that ECC in Radom should
have toothbrushes for juveniles and ECCs in Tarnów and Ostrów Wielkopolski shoul be
provided with toiletries for juveniles. The above issues were regulated in the Ordinance of
the Minister of the Interior and Administration of 21 January 2002 on detailed rules governing the stay of juveniles in Police emergency centres for children which stipulates in § 4(1)
that a juvenile staying in the centre shall receive full board and beverages, clean bed linen and
underwear, pyjamas, sweatsuit and shoes, as well as toiletries144.
In reply to the recommendations, the Municipal Policy Commander in Kielce informed that juveniles staying in the Emergency Centre for Children of the Prevention Unit
of the Municipal Police Headquarters in Kielce received bed linen, underwear, as well as
daytime and night-time clothing and footwear. The Director of the ECC in Radom wrote
in his letter that all juveniles staying at the Centre received a pair of pyjamas and clothing
appropriate for the season of the year and temperatures (sam as in Lublin), as well as toiletries, except when they have their own toiletries (provided by their parents) and want to
use them. In reply to the recommendations of the NPM for the Centre in Elbląg, a request
for purchase of 20 sets of female and male underwear was submitted to the Voivodeship
Police Headquarters in Olsztyn.
The visiting team also inspected the isolation rooms used for calming down the juveniles. In the opinion of the NPM, in one of the Centres the room failed to fulfil its isolation
functions, since it was separated from the corridor only with bars allowing for contact with
others (ECC in Olsztyn). The isolation room with two bedrooms in the ECC in Radom was
See: paragraph 41 CTP/Inf (2011) 20.
Dz. U. of 2002 No 10, item 104, as amended.
143
144
79
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents