fundamental and human rights
�.� national preventive mechanism against torture
Central Administration Unit will review the furniture of each unit, taking into account the requirements specified in the Ombudsman’s decision.
The only furniture in the isolation cells consisted
of a toilet seat and a mattress on the floor
(4653/2018).
According to the prison, four table cubes had
already been purchased and installed.
The Imprisonment Act requires cells to be
equipped with alarm devices that can be used to
contact prison staff immediately. Using the alarm
button to contact prison staff required the person
placed in the cell to go down on their knees and lie
down on their stomach to reach the button. This
could put the person’s life in danger in the event
of, for example, a seizure. From the perspective of
the persons deprived of their liberty, the location
of the button could be seen as extremely humiliating (2338/2018).
The Criminal Sanctions Region of Eastern and
Northern Finland reported that the old buttons in
Kuopio Prison had been decommissioned, and new
buttons were located at door handle height from the
floor. Photographs of the new button locations were
enclosed with the report.
The NPM recommended the prison to issue
drinking water to prisoners in plastic bottles until
working water taps could be installed in the cells.
The prison took measures to purchase plastic bottles immediately during the visit (2340/2018).
The NPM found that the lights of one of the
isolation cells did not work at all. After the visit,
the facility reported that the fault in the lights had
been repaired and they were once again operational. According to prison management, the isolation
cell had been last used in June 2018. The bed in the
cell was still unmade (in October). After the visit,
the prison reported that the used bed linen had
been removed and the cell cleaned (4652/2018).
The isolation cell was equipped with a toilet
but no water fixture. There was a pallet in the cell,
but no proper bed. The footage from the surveillance camera could be viewed in the control room.
It was impossible to tell from the camera in the
cell when it was on. The cell’s toilet seat was visible in the camera view on the screen. Therefore,
when the camera was on, a prisoner placed in the
cell could not go to the toilet without being surveilled by a camera. During the visit, the prison
was made aware that camera surveillance of a prisoner placed in an isolation cell was only permitted
under the Imprisonment Act if the prisoner had
been placed in the cell for observation or isolation
under observation (4652/2018).
Placement of remand prisoners
The Remand Imprisonment Act requires separate
units for remand prisoners and convicted prisoners. Remand prisoners may only be placed in the
same unit as convicted prisoners when the specific conditions provided for by law are met.
Deputy-Ombudsman Pölönen is trying out the accessibility of the alarm button.
86
It was an established practice in the prison to
place convicted prisoners and remand prisoners in
the same units. This had already been pointed out
to the prison during an inspection made by the
Ombudsman in 2007. At the time of the visit, the
prison was nearly fully occupied and the numbers
of remand prisoners varied a great deal. There
were also relatively few units in the prison. These
factors presented understandable difficulties in
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