Places visited by the National Preventive Mechanism in 2011
is required by hygiene or safety considerations. However, changing clothes of all persons
detained in PDRs, regardless of the reasons, cannot be accepted. It should be noted here that
as a rule, according to §10(1) of the Annex to the Ordinance of the Minister of the Interior
and Administration of 13 October 2008 on the rooms within the Police organisational units
for detained persons or persons brought to sober up and the regulations governing the stay
in those rooms93, persons detained or brought for sobering up in such rooms use their own
clothes, underwear and shoes. In should also be noted that according to §7(2)(2c) of the
Annex, only shoelaces can be confiscated, and not shoes. Taking into account the unsatisfactory answer given on 2 June 2011 by the Municipal Police Commander, who denied that
the practice observed by the NPM was applied towards all the detainees, the Mechanism
contacted the Police Commander for Wielkopolskie Voivodeship in Poznań. In his response
of 19 August 2011, the Commander assured that actions had been taken with the aim to
purchase substitute clothing for persons needing such clothing when brought to Kalisz PDR.
In some units, the detainees interviewed by the Mechanism reported that they could
not execute their right to purchase hygienic and tobacco products for the money left in
deposit (Poznań-Stare Miasto, Żyrardów, Grudziądz and Warszawa VI PDRs). In the opinion of the Mechanism, it is crucial to verify whether the above right is executed, due to
the dynamic character of detention and the resulting lack of time to collect toiletries or
purchase cigarettes or press.
Having analysed the responses of the management of individual Police headquarters
concerning the Mechanism recommendation related to broadly understood treatment, it
should be stated that implementing such recommendation should be treated as a priority.
The Commanders reminded PDR’s officers of their responsibilities related to their duty
in these units. With reference to the installation of visual monitoring or equipment for
archiving the monitoring recordings, the management of the visited units agreed with
the reasoning behind the NPM’s recommendations, and committed themselves to take
them into account when planning expenditure for the functioning of rooms for detained
persons or persons brought to sober up. The management of individual visited PDRs are
aware of the existing problem in purchasing hygienic or tobacco products by a detainee for
his own money which is kept in deposit. The reason given for such situation was the insufficient staffing of PDRs. Nevertheless, the managements committed themselves to facilitate
such purchases whenever possible.
Following the visit, the National Preventive Mechanism recommended to:
• Superior bodies of Police units with PDRs to remind the Police officers working
in PDRs about their absolute obligation to respect the dignity of persons detained
or brought to sober up;
• To create a register of direct coercive measures used in PDRs;
Dz. U. of 2008, No 192, item 1187, as amended.
93
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