CAT/OP/POL/CSPRO/1
facility organisational work sheet, which refers also to the functioning of specific types of
schools, e.g. hiring qualified teaching staff who will ensure proper educational classes
adjusted to the educational requirements and abilities of learners and who will prepare them
adequately to external examinations at the respective levels of education. Both the
organisation of the schools and the documentation of teaching process is subject to the
provisions on education applicable to regular schools.
153. The educational process and educational results of learners educated in juvenile
detention centres are subject to external and internal control. As for general education
subjects, the schools are subject to the control exercised by the competent Education
Supervisor (Kurator Oświaty), while any remaining aspects of schooling are controlled by
the Minister of Justice.
154. To exercise the educational supervision and general supervision, the representatives
of the Ministry of Justice supervise the functioning of juvenile detention centres and their
schools on an ongoing basis, evaluate the schools’ work, and no less frequently than in once
in 5 years they carry out inspections concerning the overall functioning of facilities,
including schools.
155. Educational activities at the schools functioning in juvenile detention centres and
youth temporary detention centres are subject to the same quality assessment as activities
with learners at public schools. Judges delegated to the Ministry of Justice appointed as
inspectors conduct each year an evaluation of such schools in accordance with the
requirements set in the ordinance issued by the Minister of National Education.
156. Regarding para 126 of the report, coercive physical measures against minors,
including placement in solitary confinement, are applied only in exceptional circumstances
if psychological and pedagogical corrective efforts are ineffective. The option of applying
the measure of solitary confinement as a coercive physical measure against minors is
regulated by the Act on Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings (consolidated text, Journal of
Laws of 2018, item 969), the Act on Coercive Measures and Firearms (consolidated text,
Journal of Laws of 2017, item 1839) and the Ordinance of the Minister of Justice on
security cell and solitary confinement room (Journal of Laws of 2013, item 638).
157. Whenever a minor detainee is to be placed in a solitary confinement room, the
aforementioned regulations and procedures applicable in the facility are respected. Under
such regulations and procedures, any case of solitary confinement applied to a minor
detainee is properly documented with the use of video surveillance and relevant entries are
made in relevant documents. The Department of Family and Juvenile Matters, as part of its
supervision activities, imposed an obligation on the directors of juvenile detention facilities
and youth temporary detention facilities to provide detailed information on the use of
coercive measures together with video surveillance material. Conclusions and
recommendations arising from the exercised supervision are communicated to the directors
on an ongoing basis or during briefings. The accumulated analysis of the use of coercive
measures carried out in 2017 and 2018 did not show any irregularities in terms of exceeding
the solitary confinement period allowed by the provisions of law.
158. The Department of Family and Juvenile Matters will continue to pay particular
attention to its supervision of the use of coercive measures against minors, including the
measure of solitary confinement.
159. It should be added that the recommendation specified in point 126 may be subject to
a further analysis. It needs to be taken into account, however, that in the case of the Polish
Criminal Code, the age of criminal liability is, as a rule, 17 years.
160. Regarding to para. 128 of the report, the priority in the supervision activities
conducted by the Department of Family and Juvenile Matters is to verify how the directors
and employees of juvenile detention centres ensure that minor detainees’ rights are
respected. One of such rights is a right to the protection of family ties and a right to contact
the world outside, exercised by means of visits or phone calls. The rules governing phone
calls or visits are specified in detail in the organisational rules of specific facilities.
Detainees have a guaranteed possibility of meeting visitors in special rooms, without direct
presence of the facility’s staff.
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