Places visited by the National Preventive Mechanism in 2011
The National Preventive Mechanism recommended:
• Enable detained juveniles to contact their siblings, relatives or other persons from
outside the establishment; any restrictions in this scope should comply with the
binding law;
• Increase the frequency of visits which juvenile residents are allowed to receive,
and to allow them to hold telephone conversations;
• Increase the frequency of leaves granted and enable juvenile residents to visit
their homes also at the beginning of their stay in the establishment;
• Handle personal correspondence of residents in compliance with the Act on j.d.p,
• Abandon the practice of monitoring residents’ telephone conversations and visits;
• Abandon the practice of determining the length of residents’ telephone conversations with their families on the basis of their degree of resocialization;
• Add to the Regulations the rules for paying visits to juvenile residents.
f) Educational, therapeutic, cultural and educational measures
As part of their resocialization process, residents in all of the visited establishments
were offered access to a wide range of different activities Educational and resocialization
measures were carried out by group tutors, school teachers, psychologists and pedagogues,
and consisted in group activities, workshops, individual sessions, trips and meetings with
famous people165. Frequently, juveniles also had some time to rest, do their homework,
relax by playing computer games, watch TV or enjoy outdoor activities. They were also
given a chance to participate in different hobby groups (e.g. theatre, brain teasers, computer games, arts, sports etc.). In the opinion of the NPM, the fact that in their daily activities
juveniles are assisted by tutors, which was noted in the majority of visited establishments,
plays a very important role in educational/resocialization process. In YCC in Cracow,
however, the NPM recommended to expand the offer of additional free time activities
for juvenile residents.
During individual interviews, residents pointed out that sometimes they were not allowed to go outside for a couple of days or more, e.g. due to their bad behaviour or during the initial stage of their stay in an establishment, or because of low temperatures. The
National Preventive Mechanism noted that pursuant to Rule 81 of the Recommendation of
the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Rules for juvenile offenders
subject to sanctions or measures166, all juveniles deprived of their liberty shall be allowed to
exercise regularly for at least two hours every day, of which at least one hour shall be in the
open air, if the weather permits. Also national legislation provides for this right, e. g. §17
of the Ordinance of the Minister of National Education and Sport on types and detailed
Establishments offered to residents workshops on sociotherapy, addiction prevention, remedial classes, biofeedback, psychological and social skills, help in establishing one’s system of values, corrective/remedial classes, psychotherapy, occupational
therapy, promoting healthy lifestyle, fostering good family relations, threats to psychological health.
166
CM/Rec(2008)11.
165
95
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