Annual Report 2014 of the National Preventive Mechanism
It must be pointed out that to keep inmates for various days in cells without any
furniture other than the bed, without access to their belongings and without even the
most basic items of toiletry or sheets, is not acceptable, even for security reasons.
Neither are the yards covered by metal mesh existing at certain isolation departments
considered to be adequate.
Yards of the isolation units at the CP of Villabona (Asturias) and Albolote (Granada)
187. A matter of concern are the cases observed in some CP at which the action of
the medical services in situations of isolation, or of regimental limitations and
personal protection measures contemplated in article 75 RP, was not carried out with
all safeguards for inmates, such as: the lack of a medical examination of the inmates
during the isolation or provisional isolation; their medical examination several hours
after provisional isolation or even mechanical restraint commenced (with the
consequent risk in the case that contraindications might exist) or the issue of the
medical report before the isolation punishment based only on the clinical record of the
inmate without his personal examination.
Accordingly, an adequate protocol should be in place for medical examinations to
be carried out in the case of isolation coercive measures and article 75 RP.
188. The medical practitioners should play a more proactive role, particularly in
the application of mechanical restraints, as regards verification of the continuation or
cessation of the reasons for their adoption, that the measure should have the minimum
necessary duration, supervision of the conditions in which it is carried out (state of the
cell, of the bed, basic health conditions...) and the use of concomitant medication,
recording all this in the clinical record of the inmate and in the reports prepared for the
management of the centre.
All the above forms part of the functions of the medical personnel of CP, from the point
of view of the protection of the health of the inmates and their participation in the
supervision of the conditions in which coercive measures are applied, as contemplated
by the CPT in paragraphs 52 and 53 of its third General Report. In addition, such
actions should be recorded in forms established for such purpose for their completion
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