CAT/OP/POL/ROSP/1
treatment. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party take measures to
eliminate this and any other similar practices in its police stations.
66.
In addition, the Subcommittee is concerned that persons in police detention do not
have the chance to spend any time outdoors and that none of the police establishments visited
possessed an exercise yard.
67.
The Subcommittee recommends that the State party ensure that all persons in
police detention are afforded time outside their cells, including for exercise and to
breathe fresh air, for a minimum of one hour daily.
(b)
Transportation standards
68.
Upon examining police vehicles at one police station, the delegation found them to be
too hot for transportation, while observing that not all police vehicles were equipped with
air-conditioning and seatbelts. Several detainees interviewed by the delegation complained
that during transportation, they were handcuffed behind their backs or the cuffs were too tight.
Upon examining the wrists of several detainees, the delegation observed red linear, parallel
excoriations, consistent with their allegations. At one police station, the delegation observed
that a detainee who was being prepared for a transfer was put in ankle cuffs.
69.
The Subcommittee recommends that the State party ensure the safe
transportation of arrested or detained persons, in accordance with traffic safety rules
and regulations.
B.
Prisons
70.
The Subcommittee observed that although Poland’s correctional system nominally
differentiates between prisons and remand facilities, in reality, a mixture of convicted inmates
and remand detainees can be found in both types of facilities. In the course of the visit, the
delegation visited a total of seven correctional facilities: four were formally designated as
prisons, and three as remand prisons (see annex I).
1.
Ill-treatment
71.
The delegation did not discover corroborated evidence of ill-treatment at correctional
institutions in Poland. However, the Subcommittee is concerned at allegations that in some
penitentiary institutions prison officers use violence to mould first-time offenders into
submissiveness. The delegation also heard several allegations of verbal abuse and rude
behaviour against inmates.
72.
In addition, the delegation heard an allegation of collective punishment at Wrocław
Prison 1 in the form of solitary confinement administered to a group of 10 inmates belonging
to the “subculture” – an informal association of inmates with historic roots in prisons across
Poland that maintains its own rules and norms. Reportedly, a fight had broken out between
two of the inmates; however, all the inmates were sanctioned because they refused to give
testimony in relation to the incident.
73.
The Subcommittee recommends that the State party prohibit the use of collective
punishment in its detention facilities through law and in practice, in line with rule 43 of
the Nelson Mandela Rules.
74.
In addition, the Subcommittee is concerned by several allegations of racially
motivated harassment and discrimination against inmates who are foreign or appear to be. At
one facility, a national of Ukraine reported that money sent by his family was not reaching
his prison account, in addition to his working without pay at the prison.
75.
At the same facility, female inmates complained that only half the money deposited
by their families was reaching their accounts. Numerous complaints were heard by the
delegation at the women’s section (Ward K) of Wrocław Prison 1 concerning food of a low
nutritional or hygienic quality, reprisals against inmates who complained, verbal harassment,
poor heating in winter and no access to laundry service. On the basis of those complaints, the
Subcommittee is concerned that the conditions of detention result in de facto discriminatory
treatment of women in that facility. Women also claimed that at night, their building was
locked and the key was kept in the main administrative building of the prison, meaning that
11
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents