certificates requested formed part of the prisoner's medical record, they could only be
communicated once the prefect had issued his opinion, as they concerned preparatory documents
for an administrative decision in the meaning of Article L.311-2 of the Code governing relations
between the public and the government departments (CRPA).
In reply, the Chief Inspector drew the ARS' attention to the fact that this manner of
proceeding, likely to violate prisoners' fundamental rights, was also legally questionable.
Indeed, the Public Health Code does not provide for any restriction in patients' rights to
access personal medical information. Moreover, the data featuring therein is, by essence, so
personal to the person concerned that it seems legitimate for the latter to be able to access the
documents as soon as they are written up – where applicable even before the government agency
who wishes to make use of them. Lastly, Article L.311-2 of the CRPA must apply to the opinion
of the ARS physician, providing as it does that "the opinions, provided for by legislative or regulatory texts,
in light of which a decision is rendered on request tending to benefit from an individual decision to grant entitlement ,
are communicable to the person who made said request as soon as these opinions are sent to the competent authority
for ruling on their request". Accordingly, the exception that this Article makes to the right to the
communication of administrative documents does not appear to apply to persons detained in this
context.
The Chief Inspector has thus recommended that the ARS amend the
procedures in place to enable communication of medical reports by any means
ensuring the effectiveness of the transmission within a time limit useful to the
procedures under way.
The Chief Inspector is also, more generally, aware of the difficulties raised by prisoners'
medical care and access to care, and of the absence of regulations in this regard.
4. On-site verifications
Pursuant to the second paragraph of Article 6-1 of the amended Act dated 30 October 2007
instituting the Chief inspector of places of deprivation of liberty, “Where the facts or the situation brought
to his attention fall within his jurisdiction, the Chief inspector of places of deprivation of liberty may carry out
inspections, where necessary, on-site". The on-site verifications are conducted by the inspectors in charge
of the referred cases. Inspectors in charge of missions can sometimes take part in an on-site
verification when specific needs are involved (e.g.: verifications requiring the presence of a
physician).
As part of on-site verifications, inspectors visit any location required by the investigation to
meet with any person and to receive any document under the sole reservations mentioned in
Articles 8 and 8-1 of the Act of 30 October 2007 amended. The verifications can be carried out
without prior notice or at short notice, particularly in order to allow the management to compile
the documents requested by the CGLPL. The person who referred the case to the CGLPL may
also, where applicable, be apprised of this verification and, to the extent possible, interviewed on site by the inspectors. The latter also take any steps which seem likely to increase their
understanding of the case they have been referred, in order to gain as complete a picture of the
situation as possible.
All on-site verifications lead to a written report setting out the inspectors' findings and
recommendations. The report is sent to the authorities concerned, who feed back their
observations.
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