Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011 which deprive them, temporarily or permanently, of the use of any of their natural senses, such as sight or hearing, or of the awareness of place and the passing of time. When assessing the social and living conditions in PDRs, the Mechanism noted a significant disproportion between PDRs in Poznań-Stare Miasto, Tarnów, Oleśnica, Zawiercie and Elbląg and the remaining establishments visited in 2011. The technical condition of rooms for the detainees in these establishments was assessed by the NPM as poor and requiring immediate refurbishment. In the case of Zawiercie, the NPM ordered to shut down the premises if a refurbishment proved impossible. The negative assessment of the conditions in these establishments has been an effect of a series of irregularities revealed during the visits and involving failures to comply with the standards specified in 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 rooms (lack of separated rooms provided for in the Ordinance105, PDR equipment failing to meet the standards106, lacking or insufficient alarm installations107); significant overexploitation of the premises also contributed to their negative assessment (damp walls, holes in walls and ceilings, too weak lighting, too low temperature, filth, dirty walls of the rooms for the detained). The accumulation of these inconveniences in the 5 PDRs listed above clearly shows, in the opinion of the NPM, that general refurbishment is a must in these units. With reference to the rooms mentioned above, the National Preventive Mechanism stated that social and living conditions in them bring about an additional and utterly unjustified level of inconvenience resulting from detention. Basing above all on international norms108, the Mechanism decided that general refurbishment in the PDRs mentioned above is an essential condition for the respect of dignity of detainees staying in there as well as of Police officers on duty. The NPM’s recommendations, directed to superior authorities and demanding funds for general refurbishments, encountered various reactions. The Deputy Director of Prevention Bureau of the General Police Headquarters claimed that in the case of Poznań-Stare Miasto PDR, the adaptation of the rooms to the binding technical standards would generate considerable expenditure. Financial limitations make it impossible to carry out in a short period of time all the necessary refurbishments in all the rooms where it is required. The Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Poznań did not possess in 2011 the sufficient financial resources to cover all the necessary investments in  PDR Żyrardów – lack of storing room for clothes of the detained persons; PDR Tarnów – lack of storing room for clean bed sheets; PDR Tarnów, Sochaczew, Oława, Sławno – lack of separate storing space for the belongings of the person with infectious diseases. 106  PDR Zawiercie – several cm-wide spaces between platforms, conditional consent of Sanitary Inspector of MoIA for the use of rooms on condition of their renovation; PD Kętrzyn – no shadings for lamps in rooms for the detained persons. 107  PDR Tarnów; PDR Ustrzyki Dolne (storing room). 108  See para. 56 of the Recommendation Rec(2001)10 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Code of Police Ethics adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 19 September 2001 at the 765th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies [Rec. (2001) 10] and para. 42 of the 2nd General Report of CPT [CPT/Inf (92) 3]. 105 62