Places visited by the National Preventive Mechanism in 2011 in Nowy Wiśnicz, Pre-Trial Detention Centre in Mysłowice, Pre-Trial Detention Centre in Grójec). According to the representatives of the NPM, information about the case law of the above courts could be provided by means of the radio broadcasting system in the prison. The heads of the visited establishments accepted the issued recommendations and informed the Mechanism that the prisoners were offered access to the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in the library area of prisons or were informed about them in the programmes on the radio broadcasting system. Furthermore, they also informed about the increase in the number of legal acts available in the libraries for prisoners and about the fact that the addresses of institutions protecting the rights of prisoners were provided on noticeboards. In reply to the recommendation, the head of the Prison in Koronowo asked the National Preventive Mechanism to quote the legal basis imposing an obligation on Prison Service officers to inform the prisoners about the judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal and of the ECHR. The NPM explained that it is the Constitutional Tribunal that ruled about the need to disseminate among prisoners the information about legal consequences of the judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal concerning inmates in prisons and pretrial detention centres. As a result of correspondence between the Human Rights Defender and the Office of the Constitutional Tribunal on dissemination of information about the judgments of Constitutional Tribunal and their legal consequences, the Head of the Office informed that the issue was raised in an increasing number of letters from inmates in prisons or pre-trial detention centres. Therefore, the Constitutional Tribunal took efforts to ensure that the information about its judgments concerning prisoners or detainees, and (legal and practical) consequences of such judgements be prepared and than provided to the interested parties in cooperation with the competent authorities of the Prison Service. As the Head of the Office of the Constitutional Tribunal stressed, the abovementioned educational activity should be one of the basic elements of penitentiary work whose aim is i.a. to raise awareness of the prisoners and detainees, and to ensure their access to elementary information about their legal situation. The activities intended to popularise the law and ensure education on public matters should not be limited in any way. The National Preventive Mechanism recommended to: • Ensure that the libraries have the current issues of Executive Penal Code and of “Compendia for foreigners”; • Provide the addresses of institutions protecting the rights of prisoners in a visible place, available to all; • Provide the information to prisoners, i.a. as part of cultural and educational activities or via the radio broadcasting system, about legal and practical consequences of the judgments of the Constitutional Tribunal and of the European Court of Human Rights in cases directly concerning the prisoners. 39