Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2014
own clothes and use the facility’s equipment to which charges functioning in other
groups had access, their living conditions were worse and they were not given passes or leaves, except for random cases. There were also no reports indicating that
they were allowed to go outdoors. The boys did not participate in workshops and
spent their time carrying out cleanup work within the dormitory or peeling potatoes in the kitchen. Restrictions were also made as regards the financial sphere,
since the boys could not freely manage their savings and contact their entire family
and friends. Only visits by immediate family members were allowed. It should be
stressed that the so-called penalty groups are not envisaged in the social rehabilitation methodology, as there should be no excessive repression, and are not provided for by applicable legal standards governing the operation of juvenile detention
centres. Therefore, the representatives of the NPM recommended rearranging the
principles of stay in this group.
3. Contacts with the outside world
The situation with regard to contacts with the outside world remains unchanged. The representatives of the NPM continuously found that these contacts
were limited in breach of Article 66 of the AJDP. This situation was observed in each
of the visited establishments. Deficiencies included: limiting visits to only immediate family, telephone contact with non-family members as a privilege, telephone
calls allowed for charges only in the presence of an employee, withholding juveniles’ correspondence without notifying a family judge of this fact, controlling such
correspondence, violating the right to privacy by the constant presence of a guard
when juveniles were visited, no visits allowed for juveniles in transition rooms, the
establishment’s hallway as a visit place.
4. Medical care
Juveniles in juvenile detention centres and juvenile shelters are provided
with basic and specialist health care. In most centres and shelters, the representatives of the NPM assessed that the right of juveniles to health care is fulfilled.
5. Right to religious practices
As to the right to religious practices, it was found that Masses are compulsory for all charges only in one visited establishment95. It was therefore advised to
take into account the will of parents and charges themselves as regards participation in religious practices. The visitors voiced no reservations for other centres and
shelters in this respect.
95
JDC in Sadowice.
34
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