highlight the imminent introduction of a trauma register and special injuries form. The response further specifes that the authorities have taken a series of suicide prevention measures, including the preparation of guidelines, training of staf and the establishment of a wing for vulnerable prisoners. 55. As regards the psychiatric institutions visited, some complaints of physical ill-treatment by staf were received, consisting of slaps, verbal threats and other disrespectful behaviour in the male chronic and male admissions’ wards at Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital. Recommendations are made to improve patients’ living conditions, to review the use of certain types of medication, to increase stafng levels, and to strengthen the safeguards and policies surrounding the use of seclusion and means of restraint. Further, involuntary placement and discharge procedures should grant patients more rights, and measures should be taken to ensure that the Mental Health Supervisory Committee fully complies with its mandate. In their response, the Cypriot authorities provide some information on the steps taken to address these recommendations. Report and response published in December 2014, CPT/Inf (2014) 31 and CPT/Inf (2014) 32 Report on the periodic visit to Denmark in February 2014 (inter-prisoner violence, disciplinary and security measures in prisons, secure institutions for juveniles, restraint of psychiatric patients) 56. The CPT’s delegation found that relations between prison staf and inmates in the establishments visited were generally correct and that no allegations of deliberate ill-treatment were General Report of the CPT, 2013-2014 ► Page 28 received. However, the Committee is concerned about the inter-prisoner violence, intimidation and sexual exploitation at Ringe State Prison, and recommends in its report that a comprehensive anti-bullying strategy be put in place and that proactive measures be taken to prevent sexual exploitation of female prisoners. The report states that disciplinary procedures are properly applied in prisons. Nevertheless, the CPT recommends that the legal provisions on discipline be revised to ensure that the maximum period of solitary confnement as a punishment should be no more than 14 days for a given ofence, and preferably lower. The Committee adds that there should be a prohibition on sequential disciplinary sentences resulting in an uninterrupted period of solitary confnement in excess of that maximum period. Any ofences committed by a prisoner which might call for more severe sanctions should be dealt with through the criminal justice system. The report further notes the Committee’s strong reservations as concerns any form of solitary confnement of juveniles and emphasises that a juvenile should not be placed in solitary confnement for disciplinary purposes for more than three days. As regards security-related issues, the CPT recommends that the application of pepper spray in prisons and the use of observation cells, both for prisoners at risk of suicide or self-harm and for prisoners who are disruptive or violent, be reviewed. Further, the report is critical of the application of the measure of immobilisation in prisons and recommends that steps be taken to ensure that the relevant principles and minimum safeguards set out by the Committee are applied rigorously, notably as regards its appropriate use and duration.

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