Report of the HRD on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland in 2011 The National Preventive Mechanism recommended to: • Limit the time of prisoners’ stay in transition cells to the necessary period, not longer than 14 days; • Use medical rooms in accordance with their purpose, and to exclude them from the list of rooms to be taken into account for the purposes of calculating overpopulation; • Promptly ensure appropriate living conditions for prisoners, in accordance with national legal provisions and with accepted international standards or to exclude the living pavilions from use; • Ensure appropriate sanitary and hygienic conditions in shared cells for more than a dozen persons; • Adapt cells for the needs of disabled prisoners; • Equip bunk beds with ladders and security guards or exchange them for other beds whose design ensures the safety of prisoners; • Increase the frequency of baths. 2.2. P  olice detention rooms for detained persons or persons brought to sober up Police detention rooms for detained persons or persons brought to sober up (hereinafter: PDRs) are separated parts of Police organisational units, appropriately located, equipped and secured, where persons who have been detained and brought up to sober up ale placed. Referring to recommendations of the Human Rights Defender acting as the National Preventive Mechanism76, formulated with reference to Police detention rooms for detained persons or persons brought to sober up visited in 2010, the Minister of the Interior and Administration noted in his letter of 31 October 201177 that conclusions of representatives of the Mechanism resulting from the visits to PDRs go beyond national regulations. Having analysed the NPM assessment of individual aspects of PDRs functioning (living conditions, right to medical care, right to information about the legal rights, right of the detained to inform persons close to him of his arrest), the Minister drew attention to the fact that the NPM’s recommendations are not grounded in the binding legal norms. In the opinion of the Minister, both the behaviour of officers on duty in PDRs and the organisation of the rooms are in conformity with the legal provisions in force. In response to the position of the Minister, the National Preventive Mechanism reminded in its letter of 4 December 201178 that as a body whose competences are based on international legal acts, it can formulate post-visit conclusions not only based on national legislation, but above  Hereinafter: “NPM” or “Mechanism”.  DAiN-VI-5017-43-1-11  RPO-R-071-32-11 76 77 78 50