Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2017
compulsory psychiatric treatment with prison sentence, vacancies in this respect have a direct effect on
the implementation of court decisions.
A new dental clinic in the Glina State Prison has been fully equipped, but it is still not functional. This
means that the issues regarding the dental protection for prisoners have not been solved.
According to records of the COPSPD, no more than 111 prisoners have taken out government-funded
supplemental health insurance. The majority of prisoners who do not have regular monthly income do
not enjoy the benefits of supplemental health insurance so some of them refuse to undergo therapy to
avoid accumulating debts on their deposit accounts. Despite the fact that we have pointed out that
therapy should be administered by healthcare
practitioners, only seven out of 21 penal
institutions comply with this instruction.
Execution
of
prison
sentence
relies
on
rehabilitation-based approach that presupposes
individualization of sentence by implementing
The current situation in the prison hospital is
alarming due to number of specialists that have
left. More precisely, the lack of psychiatrists is
most severely felt, since out of eight previously
employed, only one has remained. The Prison
hospital has concluded a temporary service
contract with another external specialist.
individual programmes of execution of prison
sentence and a number of specialised treatment programmes for selected groups of prisoners. Greater
diversity among treatment groups in terms of age, criminal records etc., calls for implementation of a
larger number of specialised programmes. On the other hand, the insufficient number of treatment
officials, impossibility to cover enough prisoners by group work to implement the programmes etc.
cause organizational issues. In the last couple of years, smaller penal institutions have been
implementing preventive programmes. Rather than being focused on behavioural change depending
on the criminal act, they put emphasis on the acquisition of special skills and knowledge, problemsolving and improving the quality of life and personal relations. A social skills training is a good case in
point.
In the majority of penal institutions, treatment officials do not apply proactive approach. Instead, they
talk to persons deprived of liberty only after they apply. In some penal institutions, offenders and
prisoners on remand very rarely apply for a conversation with treatment staff because they are not
informed about such a possibility. For this reason, treatment officials should visit all wards with offenders,
prisoners on remand and prisoners at least once a week so as to allow them to engage in a conversation
with them without having to apply first and ensure better availability of treatment staff across wards.
Prisoners are not likely to enter into an employment relation and engage in rehabilitation programmes
without having first completed primary education. For that reason, it is necessary to step up activities
that focus on their education. In other words, everyone has to be given an opportunity to complete
primary education in order to enter the labour market regardless of their age.
In order to ensure more prisoners’ involvement in resocialization programme, the performance
evaluation of implementation of individual programmes of execution of prison sentence should be
made more transparent and should include more feedback to the prisoners regarding the necessary
changes in their behaviour.
19
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