Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2013 2.2. Systemic problems 1. Overpopulation of penitentiary units and the so-called “queues to prisons” In the opinion of the representatives of the National Preventive Mechanisms, the problem of overcrowding of penitentiary units remained unresolved in 2013, as it was in the previous years. It should be emphasized that the fact that statistics did not reveal overpopulation (for a certain period of 2013) was due to using such places as patient rooms, cells for dangerous inmates or community rooms in residential wards to accommodate inmates. The monthly statistics for 2013, presented on the website of the Prison Service, illustrate the relation between an increase in the number of additional accommodation places for persons deprived of their liberty, generated by the need to ensure the minimum surface area for the increasing prison population, and the statistical decrease in the occupancy rate of penitentiary units. For example, thanks to 2566 additional places obtained in January 2013, the occupancy rate of penitentiary units amounted to 96.7%; while in February it totalled 97.2% thanks to 2612 additional places used.32 Additional places in pre-trial detention centres and prisons were systematically acquired from the beginning of the previous year until April when their number reached 2864. Due to placement of healthy inmates in patient rooms, adaptation of community rooms for shared residential cells33, placement of inmates who are not dangerous in cells for inmates posing a threat to the security of the unit, the overall occupancy rate in penitentiary units amounted to 96.4%, with the population of persons deprived of liberty amounting to almost 86,000. A decrease in the number of additional accommodation places to 2293 at the end of October 2013 was also due to the fall in the prison population by approximately 3000. The information about the lack of statutory surface area for each inmate is necessary to give the full picture of the occupancy rate of penitentiary units. In January 2013, 1705 inmates were held in cells where the surface area per one inmate was smaller than 3 m2; while in March the figure was 2831.34 In December 2013, with the number of inmates amounting to 78,832, 2181 additional places of accommodation were still used and the heads of penitentiary units issued a total of 148 decisions on placing inmates in cells with the surface area per inmate smaller than 3 m2. The comparison of the population of penitentiary units in January 2013 (85,618 inmates) and in December 2013 (78,832 The data come from statistics published on the website of the Prison Service. Cells for 15 or even 20 inmates, e.g. Pre-Trial Detention Centre in Bytom. 34 http://sw.gov.pl/Data/Files/001c169lidz/styczen-2013.pdf, http://sw.gov.pl/Data/Files/001c169lidz/ marzec-2013.pdf 32 33 25