detention centre needs to be improved. The Chancellor recommended that, with a view to
ensuring better safety, Rakvere police detention centre should consider putting Plexiglass in
windows in ordinary cells in order to protect windows from being broken.
At the conclusion of each inspection visit, it had to be underlined that if a cell is under 24-hour
video surveillance its justifiability needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Activities in
the hygiene corner of a cell may not be visible to others, and even police officers must have a
compelling need to see the hygiene corner. In Tallinn police detention centre it was found
that when a detainee is searched in the admission room and is undressed for this purpose,
those activities may be caught in the range of vision of a video camera and of a male officer.
That activity must be justified and may not be done in a manner demeaning of a detainee’s
dignity.
In Tallinn police detention centre, detainees cannot speak on the phone so that they are not
overheard. In the Chancellor’s opinion, it would be good if detainees could also make their
essential family or work calls without a one-day advance notice and exceptionally also on
another day in addition to the days of week designated for this. A possibility should also be
found that those detainees whose next of kin cannot send them a call card to the detention
centre could also acquire a call card with their own money with assistance from the Police
and Border Guard Board. In some police detention centres, detainees cannot read national
daily papers even though the law entitles them to this.
On several occasions, the Chancellor also had to check the arrangement of provision of
medical care in the detention facilities of the Police and Border Guard Board. Applications for
a doctor’s appointment submitted by detainees should not be seen by any other staff apart
from medical professionals. An appointment with a medical professional should always take
place outside the hearing range of third parties and, as a rule, should also not be observed by
a police officer. A medical professional must have an overview of medication given to a
detainee by a guard upon instruction by the medical professional. When investigating a
complaint, the Chancellor reached the conclusion that access to medical care may be
impeded in Tallinn police detention centre. No effective information exchange took place
between the staff of the detention centre and medical professionals, so that information
about a detainee with health problems admitted to the detention centre did not move
sufficiently quickly.
Under § 3(3) of the Government Regulation No 40 of 6 December 2013, in procuring