CHANCELLOR OF JUSTICE AS NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM PART I draw up regulative provisions to enable an individual approach to pupils referred to special schools and to take into account their special needs, and also establish different regimes for special schools. 5.2. Living rooms and the arrangements for spending free time incompatible with the needs of children PART IV PART III PART II Upon the inspection, it was found that the living conditions and organisation of life at Tapa Special School did not meet the needs of the children at the school. The furniture in the sleeping rooms of the children was very scarce and in a poor state of repair. For example, in some rooms the only piece of furniture was a bed, and in some rooms a bed and a nightstand. In the rooms without a nightstand the pupils kept their personal belongings on the windowsill. In many of the rooms, windows had no curtains, and several rooms had no door. Doors were also absent in the toilet cubicles in one of the groups. The furniture in the group rooms was also scarce and in a poor state of repair. For example, in one group room, there were not enough chairs for all the pupils and some of the existing chairs were broken and not suitable for use. The management of Tapa Special School explained the situation by the fact that the pupils themselves had broken all the furniture and, therefore, there was no sense to provide new furniture for the rooms. The Chancellor emphasised that annoyance over the broken furniture cannot be a justification for insufficient furniture (which is also in a poor state of repair) in the living rooms. In the Chancellor’s opinion, the fact that pupils often break the furniture is a clear sign of insufficient educational work, insufficient skills in preventing cases of violence and reacting to them, as well as lack of control over the behaviour of the pupils. These are serious problems which need to be resolved, but the solution cannot be the removal of all the furniture and personal belongings from the living rooms of pupils. Although the current legislation does not establish any specific requirements for rooms in boarding school facilities, this does not mean that pupils in boarding schools could be deprived of basic items of furniture such as a nightstand, chair and table. Definitely, furniture in the rooms of pupils of a special school should not be more scarce than, for example, in a seclusion room for which minimum requirements have been established by a regulation of the Minister of Social Affairs42. By way of analogy, with certain concessions, the health protection requirements applicable for child social welfare institutions43 or the substitute home service44 establishing, inter alia, specific requirements for the furnishings of rooms, could serve as a model for boarding schools facilities of special schools. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has also noted that a well-designed juvenile detention centre will provide positive and personalised conditions of detention for young persons deprived of their liberty. In addition to being of an adequate size, well lit and ventilated, juveniles’ sleeping and living areas should be properly furnished, well-decorated and offer appropriate visual stimuli. Unless there are compelling security reasons to the contrary, juveniles should be allowed to keep a reasonable quantity of personal items.45 26 42 See the Minister of Social Affairs regulation No 33 of 8 February 2002 „Health protection and safety requirements for the seclusion room and its furnishings“. Available online in Estonian: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/13256047. 43 See the Minister of Social Affairs regulation No 4 of 9 January 2001 „Health protection requirements for child social welfare institutions“. Available online in Estonian: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/13360780. 44 See the Minister of Social Affairs regulation No 59 of 20 July 2007 „Health protection requirements for the substitute home service“. Available online in Estonian: https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/12855667. 45 See the CPT Standards, p 72, para 29. Available online: http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards-scr.pdf.