Further measures proposed by the Special Rapporteur
T
he Special Rapporteur would like to extend its support to the
recommendations contained in the UNDP report The prison system in
Mozambique, December 2000. The Special Rapporteur would like also to propose
a certain number of specific concrete actions.
General recommendations
(a) Prison tehahilitation should be intensified and the building of prisons
started years ago should be completed to allow for the transfer of
prisoners to more humane places. All efforts should be made to ensure
that prisoners are detained in purpose-built premises.
(b)Measures towards the separation of different categories of prisoners
should be undertaken as overcrowding is brought down.
(c) Sleeping conditions should be as good as possible for all prisoners
and damp-free sleeping accommodation should be ensured.
(d)The quantity and quality of food and containers should be improved.
(e) The shower, toilets and washing facilities should be restored to a good
state of repair and maintained in a hygienic condition in all places
where problems were observed.
(0 The efforts to increase the number of work and vocational training
places should be intensified.
(g)A better range of activities should be offered to any remand prisoner
staying for a lengthy period.
(h)More prisons' activity programmes (including education, sport and
recreational activities) should be Introduced as overcrowding is brought
down.
(i) Ventilation should be improved in establishments where problems
were observed.
(j) The visiting conditions should be reviewed in order to ensure that
prisoners are able to receive visits and that families do not have to
pay guards.
(k)The new prison policy should investigate the possibility of setting up
a national independent monitoring mechanism outside the prison
administration that could visit prisons regularly and make all necessary
recommendations
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Health recommendations
(a) Doctors should be recruited for the larger prisons in full-time positions
and existing para-medical staff should be strengthened to ensure
attendance by general practitioners amounting to the equivalent of the
presence of a full-time doctor; assistance by an appropriate number of
qualified nurses; and ready access for prisoners to a dentist.
(b)Renovation of existing health infrastructures should be intensified extension and creation of health mfrastructuies in the large prisons
that do not have such facilities. These structures should include
observation beds and an isolation room for contagious diseases. The
prison directors may also order that prisoners suffering from an
infectious disease, or who are a danger to themselves or others, be
accommodated in a special cell. Such a measure is to be lifted as soon
as the reason that caused its imposition disappears; if that reason
persists, the prisoner concerned is to be transferred to a specialist State
hospital for treatment. All other complementary measures should be
taken so as to provide full 24-hour medical services.
(c) AIDS education programmes in prisons should be intensified.
Furthermore, voluntary testing for AIDS in prisoners should be
encouraged and suitable structures should be put in place for the
psychological and medical support of prisoners who decide to take
this test, HIV positive prisoners, and those already suffering from
AIDS.
(d)The position of Head Prison Doctor should be created who would be
an integral part of national prison management within the Department
of liist ice and Home Office whose responsibilities would include the
in ',anon of periodical inspection visits to prisons to examine how
ti Lit prison medical services are functioning.
Young people
(a) Spec ialised units for juveniles should be developed and in the
meantime strict separation between adults and young people should
be maintained.
(b) Young persons in custody should be provided with a Rill regime of
educational, recreational and other purposeful activities. Physical
education should constitute a significant element of that regime.
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