Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011 g) Right to complain The visiting team praised the possibility for the prisoners to lodge complaints and requests to the head of their establishment and to other competent authorities. However, the prisoners held in the Prison in Tarnów-Mościce complained to the visiting team that they were not informed about the reasons why their requests were rejected. Several prisoners claimed that in some cases persons submitting requests had not received any information about the examination of their requests, which violates the Rule 36.(4) of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners56 stipulating that unless it is evidently frivolous or groundless, every request or complaint shall be promptly dealt with and replied to without undue delay. The representatives of the Mechanism were also concerned about the lack of decisions in favour of complainants in the Prison in Nowy Wiśnicz and in Sieradz. According to the NPM representatives, this may point to the lack of objectivity on the part of persons examining the complaints and raises concerns regarding the efficiency of the complaints procedure. In individual interviews, the prisoners declared that complaints would not have an impact on changing their situation anyway. The head of the Prison in Nowy Wiśnicz informed the Mechanism that the request and complaints procedure in his establishment was compliant with the Ordinance of the Minister of Justice of 13 August 2003 on the procedure for handling applications, complaints and requests of inmates in prisons and pre-trial detention centres57. The National Preventive Mechanism recommended to: • Ensure the appropriate functioning of the complaints procedure. h) Staff Penitentiary divisions of the visited institutions and detention centres employed persons with higher education. In the context of European requirements, the National Preventive Mechanism kept stressing that staff working with prisoners should be regularly trained in the rights and duties of those kept in detention centres. According to the European Prison Rules58, management shall ensure that, throughout their career, all staff maintain and improve their knowledge and professional capacity by attending courses of in-service training and development to be organised at suitable intervals (Rule 81.2). The training of all staff shall include instruction in the international and regional human rights instruments and standards, especially the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as in the application of the European Prison Rules (81.4).  Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977. 57  Dz.U. of 2003 No 151, item 1467. 58  Recommendation Rec(2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Prison Rules. 56 40