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annual report 2010
Ombudsman is assumed not to have jurisdiction in relation to authorities under
Greenland’s self-rule (previously Greenland’s Home Rule).
The police and prison service in Greenland are not self-rule authorities and
therefore fully within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction.
Since 1989, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has worked relatively intensively on
the conditions for those confined in institutions in Greenland, i.e. primarily the
five prisons for convicted persons in West and South Greenland and the total
of 14 detention facilities for intoxicated persons located throughout Greenland.
The work has mainly consisted in inspections of the prisons and detention facilities – including the building conditions – and investigations of the inmates’
conditions, the rules in force etc. Some of the problems are connected with the
special geographic, climate and social conditions in this huge Arctic country.
The work is now largely completed.
In connection with the inspections in Greenland, it was natural for the Parliamentary Ombudsman to inspect the conditions for the inmates of the Greenlander Ward at the Herstedvester Prison and the Greenlandic forensic psychiatric patients at initially the Oringe State Hospital and subsequently the Aarhus
University Hospital in Risskov. Among other things, several inspections have
been carried out.
A DEATH IN A DETENTION ROOM IN QEQERTARSUAQ (GODHAVN)
FOR INTOXICATED PERSONS
On 18 July 1989, Skive Folkeblad wrote the following about a death in a detention room in Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn) for intoxicated persons:
‘Died from over-heating in Greenlandic cell
Hopefully the prisons will now be improved, says Chief Constable of Godthaab
An inmate in a Greenlandic prison died – from over-heating. This was revealed by Consultant (…) on yesterday’s television news.
In his capacity of Chief District Doctor, (…) found a man dead in a cell in Godhavn on
the morning of 1 June. The man had been taken into custody due to domestic disturbances the previous evening and was placed in one of the two very small cells in the local
prison.
The post-mortem showed that the inmate had died from over-heating, partly due to the
small size of the cell, but especially because the thermostat was not working and the
ventilator was partially covered. When the doctor found the deceased, rigor mortis had
set in and the body was very warm.
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