Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2013 3. Lack of the possibility on the part of remand prisoners to call their defence attorneys or attorneys Due to the lack of amendment (announced by the Minister of Justice) of executive penal regulations to enable the remand prisoners to call their defence attorneys or attorneys, on 15 November 2013 the Human Rights Defender filed a motion to the Constitutional Tribunal to declare Article 217c of the Executive Penal Code to be incompliant with the Polish Constitution.50 In the justification of her motion, the Defender stated that imprecise formulation of the regulation in question resulted in its established interpretation being inconsistent with the Constitution in terms of the remand prisoners’ right to defence. 4. A bsence or a poor offer of cultural and educational activities for remand prisoners and convicts Thematic visits carried out by the NPM representatives in 2013 proved that apart from the possibility to go to community rooms (only in establishments where community rooms have been set up), there are no other activities outside residential cells for remand prisoners. They do not have the possibility to take up work (according to the data of the Central Board of Prison Service, only 19 remand prisoners out of 6,589 were employed as at 31 December 2013) or education. In view of the constitutional principle of presumption of innocence applicable to those persons, it is of utmost importance to enable their access to various activities outside their cells to prevent the consequences of penitentiary isolation. 5. I nsufficient provision of hygiene products to inmates and insufficient frequency of showers for men Although the Ministry of Justice took note of the problem of insufficient provision of hygiene products to inmates, the regulations on living conditions of inmates in penitentiary units were not amended as expected in the previous year. The situation changed, in line with the suggestions from the HRD’s petitions, when the Minister of Justice issued the Ordinance of 28 January 2014 on living conditions of inmates in prisons and pre-trial detention centres51, which will enter into force after 6 months from its publication, i.e. 14 August 2014. The new regulation increases the allocation of some hygiene and sanitary products to persons deprived of liberty. http://www.rpo.gov.pl/pl/content/wniosek-do-trybuna%C5%82u-konstytucyjnego-w-sprawie-br aku-mo%C5%BCliwo%C5%9Bci-telefonicznego 51 Dz. U. item 200. 50 31