Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2017 The NMPT recommendation: Precise guidelines for prison doctors are needed For this reason, the Commissioner for Human Rights intervened before the Director General of the Prison Service and requested him to introduce precise guidelines, addressed in particular to doctors employed by penitentiary institutions, which would set forth how the obligation to properly document physical and psychological injuries as well as the consequences of torture and violence should be performed. Those guidelines would also specify the procedure for reporting such cases to relevant law enforcement bodies52. The reply of the Deputy Director General of the Prison Service does not indicate that the said guidelines will be implemented. The Deputy Director General merely mentioned that the issues concerning the protection of human rights and the Istanbul Protocol are a subject of systematic training that prison personnel, including officers, undergoes.53 2. Limited living space for prisoners in cells Living conditions prevailing in penitentiary establishments results from the universal problem of limited living space per prisoner in residential cells. In accordance with Polish law minimum 3 m2 of living space need to be ensured to every prisoner in a cell. The law also provides for the possibility to go below that standard54, even though one is not able to normally function in such conditions. The Polish norm fails to comply with international standards and practices that are in place in most European countries. Unfortunately, it may be concluded from the response of the Minister of Justice to the annual report on the activity of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in 2016 that introducing a 4m2 standard requires a legislative initiative, which, given the current prison population and restructuring changes, is not possible55. The minimum standard recommended to Council of Europe countries by the European Committee for the prevention of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment (CPT) is minimum 4 m2 in single-person cells and 6 m2 in multi-occupancy cells, not including the cell’s sanitary areas 52 General Intervention of the CHR dated 24.10.2017 to the Director General of the Prison Service, ref. no. KMP.571.6.2017.JJ 53 Reply of the Deputy Director General of the Prison Service dated 07.11.2017, ref. no. BSZ.55.6.2017.LL 54 Article 110 of the Act of 6 June 1997 of the Executive Penal Code (consolidated text: Dz.U. of 2017, item 665) 55 Letter to the Minister of Justice of 14 April 2018, ref. no. DWMPC-III-850-2/18 56 Cf. Living space per prisoner in prison establishments: CPT standards, 15 December 2015, CPT/Inf (2015) 44; 26th CPT General Report, CPT/Inf 26