Report of the Human Rights Defender on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2014 2. Prisons and pre-trial detention centres 2.1. Introduction According to the annual schedule, a total of 21 penitentiary establishments were visited in 2014, including nine prisons23, 11 pre-trial detention centres24 and one external ward25. Two visits were follow-up visits26. 2.2. Systemic problems The visits allowed for identifying general problems resulting from imperfections of the law that regulates the rights and obligations of people deprived of their liberty which, compared to 2013, are still valid. The major imperfections are as follows: 1. Lack of the possibility on the part of remand prisoners to call their defence attorneys or attorneys On 15 November 2013, the Human Rights Defender filed a request with the Constitutional Court to declare Article 217c of the Executive Penal Code incompliant with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland27. In the statement of reasons for her request, the Defender stated that imprecise formulation of the contested provision resulted in its established interpretation being inconsistent with the Constitution in terms of the right of remand prisoners to defence. On 25 November 2014, the Court ruled that Article 217c of the Executive Penal Code (Ref. K54/13) is unconstitutional insofar as it strictly forbids a remand prisoner to call his/her defence attorney, thus breaching Article 42(2) in conjunction with Article 31(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The contested provision is to be repealed from the legal system following 6 months of the date of publication of the judgment of the Court28, i.e. on 4 June 2015. 2. Absence or a poor offer of cultural and educational activities for remand prisoners and convicts The representatives of the National Preventive Mechanism assessed that organisation and diversification of this type of classes and access to them by remand Prs in: Łowicz, Strzelce Opolskie (No 1), Potulice, Zamość, Opole Lubelskie, Kamińsk, Lubliniec, Brzeg, Siedlce (follow-up visits). 24 PTDCs in: Łódź, Warsaw-Białołęka, Kraków-Podgórze, Warsaw-Służewiec, Międzyrzecz, Zabrze, Sosnowiec, Częstochowa (revisit), Bielsko-Biała, Kamień Pomorski, Tarnowskie Góry. 25 Prison in Warsaw-Białołęka. 26 Findings of the visit were discussed in a separate chapter. 27 http://www.rpo.gov.pl/pl/content/wniosek-do-trybuna%C5%82u-konstytucyjnego-w-spra wie-braku-mo%C5%BCliwo%C5%9Bci-telefonicznego 28 Dz.U. of 2014, item 1707. 23 18