evaluated as unjustified. The EPSA and the Ordinance on the method of conducting activities
of the security department in prisons and penitentiaries (OG 48/09) do not prescribe
mandatory restraint, while the method of escort is determined by a written order which, inter
alia, contains the prisoner's escape risk level and danger level and the specific measures of
maintaining order and security from the EPSA that may be taken during escort. Therefore,
automatic determination of restraint in an escort order is unjustified, and it is required to carry
out an individual security assessment for each prisoner, which is why it was requested that
such practice should be revised.
Furthermore, the collected information point to the existence of difficulties in providing
health care at the State Prison, which are caused by the lack of physicians, dentists and
psychiatrists. Likewise, during the visit it was established that the persons, who are subject to
the security measure of statutory addiction treatment and treated with Suboxone (61 persons),
are accommodated in a separate ward, and the given explanation was easier supervision of
adherence to the treatment with Suboxone and other prescribed medications. Already during
the visit we have warned about the questionable professional grounds for separating persons
who are taking Suboxone in a separate ward. More precisely, separation may be justified only
in cases of specific treatment programmes based on principles of therapeutic community,
modified for application in the prison system, when the group itself is potentially promising in
terms of therapy, which is clearly not the case here. Likewise, many interviewed prisoners
stated that health and dental care is not easily available to them and that they cannot receive
specialist care on time, that is, cannot visit the specialist who recommended a follow-up exam
within a specific period. They further state that the waiting period for seeing a physician or
dentist is up to 3 months, while the decision on who is going to see a physician is made by a
medical technician who carries out the selection of their requests to see a physician. This
practice is evaluated as unacceptable; a physician must be included in this process. In
addition, it was established that prisoners who are taking Suboxone have no work
engagements, which is in our opinion unjustified. The taking of Suboxone as well as of any
other therapy which is prescribed and taken in appropriate doses may not be the reason to
prevent prisoners from working. A decision on the incapacity to perform a particular work
due to health reasons may be made only individually, based on the examination of a
psychiatrist, who assessed the patient's condition in terms of his/her work incapacity, or of a
physician.
The examination of documentation revealed that the funds approved for the State Prison as
well as the employment of officers neither comply with legally prescribed standards nor with
the increased number of prisoners due to the construction of a new building. It is also
important to point out that, since May 2012 until the time of the visit, the State Prison did not
receive any funds for the prisoners' meals, which surely has direct effects on the quality of
meals. In fact, as the prisoners' complaints in this institution mostly referred to the daily
amount of food provided for them, by inspecting the daily menus it was established that the
average daily calorific value is below the prescribed 3,000 kcal, and this is compensated with
increased amounts of bread.