Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011
juvenile in ECC after a family judge has issued an order to place him/her in an establishment. From the information received from the Ministry of Justice it results that this issue
should be addressed when the Act on j.d.p. is amended. The NPM is of the opinion that the
centres are not properly adjusted for longer stays of juveniles. The issue remains within the
Defender’s scope of interest. The Defender stresses that the period of detaining juveniles
in Police emergency centres for children should be as short as possible, whereas its time
frame should be specified in the act.
The Minister of Interior and Administration addressed also the issue of placing juveniles in ECC based on a court warrant ordering a juvenile to be brought to foster care
centre (youth care centre or youth sociotherapy centre). The Act of 9 June 2011 on granting
support to family and on the system of alternative care114 (the Act entered into force on
1 January 2012) regulated the issue of escapees form juvenile detention centres (hereinafter
JDC), who may also be placed in ECCs.
The Ministry also quoted the recommendations of the National Preventive Mechanism
to provide juveniles, insofar as it is possible, with proper psychological care, and to ensure
that all new arrivals are medically screened and that medical services are provided in rooms
suitable for the purpose and are properly documented. In the opinion of National Preventive
Mechanism, the Report rightly noted that national provisions regulating the functioning of
Police emergency centres for children do not mention the obligation to conduct psychological and medical examination of each newly admitted juvenile. Moreover, they do not stipulate that there should be a separate doctor’s room in each ECC. The NPM also stated that as
regards the issue of proper recording of juveniles’ medical examination in a register of medical consultations, which is done by a doctor, police officers on duty in an ECC have a very
limited influence on observing this procedure, similarly as in the case of rooms for detained
persons within the police headquarters (hereinafter referred to as Chambers), and all they
can do is ask doctors to be more attentive when recording the data in the register. The NMP
is of the opinion that the newly admitted juveniles should undergo medical consultations.
This issue will be discussed in the part of the Report dedicated to access to medical care.
Continuing his answer on the issue of cultural and educational programme, which was
raised in the Report, the Minister pointed out that following the NPM’s recommendations,
the Chief Police Commander obliged voivodship Police commanders (Warsaw Metropolitan Police) to take proper actions aimed at ensuring that juveniles detained in ECCs for
over 24 hours can exercise in fresh air for at least one hour a day.
Due to the fact that juveniles have not had such right, the draft regulations for the stay
of juveniles in ECC, attached to the draft Ordinance, stipulate that the above mentioned
possibility to exercise is a rights of a juvenile detained in an ECC for over 24 hours. Moreover, it was suggested that the heads of ECCs set a framework daily schedule covering educational, disciplinary, cultural, sport, recreational and cleaning activities, and specifying
Dz.U. of 2011 No 149, item 887.
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