(c)
Adopting an action plan based on the Basic Policy Guidelines and ensuring the necessary
resources for its effective implementation and follow up; and
(d)
Taking further measures to improve the living conditions in detention facilities,
elaborating more contemporary and modern programmes aimed at re socialisation, and ensuring
training of prison personnel to raise their professional qualification in light of their work with
juveniles.
Conditions of detention
(12) The Committee is concerned that, notwithstanding the measures taken by the State party to improve
conditions of detention, including the adoption of the 2005 Concept on the Development of Penitentiaries and the
establishment of the new Olaine Prison Hospital on 1 August 2007, there is continuing overcrowding in prisons. The
Committee takes note of information provided on the improvement of conditions in some detention facilities and
prisons but is concerned at the overall conditions of detention, including unsuitable infrastructures and unhygienic
living conditions, in other prisons, remand centres and police short-term detention cells. The significant increase in
the number of applications lodged with the Latvian National Human Rights Office (now the Ombudsman
institution), including alleged violations of the right to human treatment and respect for human dignity (alternatively
treatment in places of deprivation of liberty) in different kind of institutions, including closed institutions, is also a
matter of concern. Additionally, the Committee is concerned at the occurrence of inter-prisoner violence and lack of
statistical data that may provide breakdown by relevant indicators to facilitate determination of root causes and
design of strategies to prevent and reduce such occurrences (arts. 11 and 16).
The Committee recommends that the State party should:
(a)
Continue its efforts to alleviate the overcrowding of penitentiary institutions, including
through the application of alternative measures to imprisonment and the increase of budgetary
allocations to develop and renovate the infrastructure of prisons and other detention facilities in the
context of the Concept on the Development of Penitentiaries;
(b)
Take effective measures to further improve living conditions in the detention facilities,
including prisons and police short term detention cells; and
(c)
Monitor and document incidents of inter prisoner violence with a view to revealing root
causes and designing appropriate prevention strategies and provide the Committee with such data,
disaggregated by relevant indicators, in the next periodic report.
Furthermore, the Committee encourages the Ministry of Justice to proceed with the drafting of the
Standards of the Places of Deprivation of Liberty.
(13) While noting the elaboration and implementation of the 2005 guidelines for the prison personnel providing
instructions for the treatment of persons at risk of committing suicide, the Committee is concerned at the high
number of suicides and other sudden deaths in detention facilities (arts. 11 and 16).
The State party should strengthen its efforts to prevent suicide and self harm risks in custody. The
State party is encouraged to adopt a suicide prevention policy for prisons, including screening,
reporting, data collection, training and education and establish social rehabilitation units for prisoners
as indicated in the training seminar on “Suicide Prevention in Prisons” on 18 May 2005. The State
party should also ensure that all incidents of suicide and other sudden death are promptly and
effectively investigated.
Independent monitoring
(14) The Committee notes information provided on state-guaranteed and non-governmental organization-based
monitoring of places, where personal liberty is being limited and that article 13, paragraph 3 of the Ombudsman
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