Report on the ad hoc visit to Belgium in May 2016 and response of the Belgian authorities (treatment of prisoners during industrial action by prison staff) 29. The CPT visited four prison establishments (Huy, Ittre and Jamioulx Prisons, as well as the Social Defence Establishment (EDS) in Paifve), all of which were affected by the ongoing industrial action being carried out by prison staff. At the time of the visit, almost all the prison staff were absent from their posts in these four prisons, and the establishments were only able to keep functioning thanks to management personnel and a few volunteer prison and health-service employees, assisted by police officers and other reassigned staff. However, the CPT’s report notes that these staffing arrangements were insufficient to guarantee acceptable conditions of detention. Consequently, the vast majority of prisoners interviewed during the visit were unable to leave their cells to exercise, take part in activities or use the telephone for a period of about two weeks, and most visits by family members and lawyers had to be cancelled. Numerous prisoners remained locked in their cells around the clock, often with one or more cellmates. Many of the prisoners met by the delegation were in a state of stress or anxiety. Access to health care was a concern, since only prisoners requiring ongoing treatment or emergency care were treated. This was all the more problematic in the psychiatric unit of Jamioulx Prison and, above all, at the Paifve EDS, where psychiatric patients (“internés”) were deprived of any therapeutic care. In addition, picketing prison officers discouraged or blocked both custodial and health-care staff from entering the establishment, prevented visits from lawyers and families and hampered daily deliveries, including of food supplies. In the report, the CPT notes that several serious incidents occurred in the course of the industrial action (such as fires within the establishments and destruction of cell furniture), and requests further information regarding the death of a psychiatric patient who was killed by his cellmate at the psychiatric unit of Lantin Prison. The CPT stresses that a number of situations observed by its delegation, particularly at the Paifve EDS, where certain inmates suffering from mental health problems were unable to maintain their own hygiene or clean their cells without support, could be considered as inhuman and degrading. Such conditions of detention were all the more intolerable given the fact that the industrial action lasted as long as two months in some of the prison establishments. 30. For more than ten years, the CPT has been recommending that a guaranteed minimum service in prisons be established. This minimum service should include prisoners being provided with meals at regular times, having unfettered access to health care, being offered at least one hour of outdoor exercise every day and having the possibility to maintain their personal hygiene and to keep up their contacts with the outside world. The report calls upon the Belgian authorities to pass legislation, without delay, to establish such a guaranteed minimum service, while respecting the rights and freedoms of prison staff, in accordance with European human rights law. 31. In their response to the report, the authorities provide information regarding the death of the patient at Lantin Prison and state that they are preparing a draft General Report of the CPT, 2016 ► Page 18