Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2016
days after the incident, but failed to establish when and how the mentioned injuries occurred.
On the other hand, according to allegations made by complainants and other prisoners, injuries
had been inflicted by judicial police officers during search. Considering that investigative
procedure is still in progress, at this moment it is impossible to conclude whether the incident
was caused by illegal action or misuse of power; however, cases such this one point to the
importance of a thorough investigation.
Prisoners still complain about inefficiency of legal protection, both when it comes to the
manner in which heads of prisons act on complaints and that in which executing judges act on
requests for judicial protection and complaints about decisions reached by heads of prison.
According to data provided by COPSD, in 2016, 56 requests for judicial protection were proved
well-founded, one of which pertained to dietary conditions, others to accommodation
conditions. Protection was granted to prisoners from Lepoglava State Prison (55) and Varaždin
County Prison (1), whereas none of the requests for protection received by other penal
institutions were found to be well-founded. The fact that in 2016, only 11 prisoners on remand
filed a complaint to the head of prison, points to great mistrust regarding the efficiency of this
legal remedy.
We continue to receive complaints pertaining to implementation of disciplinary proceedings.
For example, after acting on complaint filed by a prisoner who decided to contact us
considering that he had been groundlessly punished, it was determined that disciplinary
proceedings had been initiated against him because he started running during walk around
prison yard. In the notes from the hearing, it is stated that running is prohibited for the sake of
personal security of other people present in the prison yard. Even though the prisoner claimed
that he could not have endangered safety of other prisoners because he always visited the
prison yard by himself, he was found guilty for refusing to obey a legitimate order by an
authorized official. He filed a complaint against the decision to the competent executing judge,
but the procedure was terminated on the grounds of expiry of limitation period. Problems
occurring during implementation of disciplinary proceedings, to which we have also pointed in
the Report for 2015, will not be resolved without a clearer normative regulation and continuous
educational training of officials engaged in their implementation.
Even though, judging by the number of received complaints, it is possible to have an impression
that violence among prisoners does not occur frequently, this problem deserves continuous
and reinforced attention. Prisoners frequently claim that they are unwilling to report having
fallen victim to inter-prisoner violence due to fear of revenge or shame, thus preventing timely
reaction, which is something that happened in Zagreb County Prison, where none of the
officials for almost two weeks realized that a prisoner on remand suffered daily abuse. In order
to avoid this type of situations, all persons who work with prisoners, especially officials of the
Security Department and Treatment Department for Prisoners as well as healthcare workers,
must pay attention and recognize signs of violence and undertake measures aimed at ensuring
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