7. Outstanding issues in effective prevention of ill-treatment Disciplinary punishments prisons Issue: The legal limit for the duration of solitary confinement as a form of disciplinary punishment is 14 days. Subsequent disciplinary punishments can prolong the effective duration of solitary confinement even above the statutory maximum. The CPT has further repeatedly pointed out that the range of possible disciplinary punishment of prisoners should not include total prohibition of contact with family if the misconduct committed did not relate to such a contact. Potential solution: In 2015, the Government promised to the CPT to prepare a draft amendment that would incorporate disciplinary proceedings comprehensively in the Service of Imprisonment Act, reduce the time of solitary confinement and placement in an enclosed ward, and transfer decision-making on the most serious disciplinary misconduct to criminal proceedings. The promise has yet to be fulfilled. It is necessary to modify the Service of Imprisonment Act. Social services lack an independent complaints mechanism social services facilities Issue: Clients of social services have no place to turn to with a complaint if they suspect violation of their rights, other than the management of the facility they live in. The Defender receives many complaints concerning the quality of nursing care, e.g. from children of senior citizens; unfortunately, there is no one to look into these complaints. Clients who are dependent on care and disabled are in an extremely vulnerable position and referring them to seek recourse in court is not an effective solution. While we have been pointing to this problem for many years, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs only started addressing it by the end of 2018. Potential solution: There is a complaints mechanism in healthcare, but the law does not take into account nursing care provided as part of social services. It would thus be sufficient to simply change the law accordingly. However, the area of social services requires a systemic solution. It is necessary to amend the Healthcare Services Act so as to open the current complaints mechanism to recipients of nursing care in social services facilities. Furthermore, a complaints mechanism has to be established in the field of social services. There is a lack of personnel, material and technical standards of social services social services facilities Issue: Some of the facilities lack sufficient conditions for the provision of care, which may also lead to ill-treatment of clients. While the Social Services Act does generally require the providers to ensure personnel, material and technical conditions corresponding to the type of the social services provided, without further specification in the form of a decree this legal provision is unclear and shortcomings almost cannot be penalised. It is necessary to include authorising provisions in the Social Services Act and then issue the relevant implementing decrees. Inspection authorities are not allowed to peruse medical records social services facilities Issue: For the authorities inspecting the provision of social services to effectively protect the clients’ rights 22 and prevent ill-treatment, they have to be able to access all documents kept by the social services provider. This means they must have the right to peruse documentation on nursing care and make excerpts or