1.4 Visits to prisons, a juvenile prison and a youth detention centre
all of them who wished to take part in an interview; on the other day three groups of participants of the
visit by the NPM did the remaining inspection and interviews with prisoners and after that a concluding
interview with the management officers. On the same day, the expert under contract examined outpatient
rooms and held a personal interview with a general practitioner, stomatologist and psychiatrist and with
detainees who wished to take part in an interview.
Upon each visit, statistical data on the number of persons detained, the number of prisoners and the
persons in compliance detention during our visit was obtained.
At the time of the visits, there were out of a total of 1167 prisoners held, there were 992 convicted persons
(including convicted persons who served a penalty for detention pursuant to Article 12 of Enforcement of
Criminal Sanctions Act and convicted persons who were in house arrest, convicted persons who were in
the arrival phase, convicted persons on the run, convicted persons in a hospital, convicted persons in the
suspension of implementing a prison sentence, convicted persons in forensic psychiatry), 99 detainees
and 16 persons in compliance detention.
Reports on individual visits and main findings made by the NPM in this regard have been published
on the Ombudsman’s official web site (although only some in English),whilst only the most important
circumstances discovered by the NPM in 2013 related to this field have been pointed out in this Report.
Findings from visits - examples of good practice and recommendations to improve
conditions
It is encouraging that the situation or practice in the institutions or their units deserved particular praise
in 50 cases, whereby the leading position was taken by Koper Prison achieving ten of such compliments,
Maribor Prison - Murska Sobota Open Unit with eight and Ig Prison with seven approvals. Especially
Dob pri Mirni Prison - Puščava Open Unit and Dob Prison - Slovenska vas Half-Open Unit need to be
pointed out which needed no special recommendations or proposals that the units should accept for the
improvement of the condition, because it was established that actually all recommendations of the NPM
from the last visit were taken into consideration and were realised during the visit. We especially want to
point out Koper Prison where regular defects and repairs are assured according to the system of reports
that are kept in the record of the system of reports on defects and are regularly eliminated. Ig Prison
must be particularly commended where the effort of the institution to provide as many free-time activities
as possible is most varied in comparison to other institutions and the variety of these activities is especially
welcome when not all persons are provided with work. Also Maribor Prison - Murska Sobota Unit must
be commended where it was established after the visit of the NPM that outpatient room was placed into
a room previously used as an archive room located next to the detention room. The new room enables
a doctor to be separated from a nurse which means better conditions for doctor’s work and provides
necessary confidentiality during a medical examination. Also Dob pri Mirni - Puščava Open Unit must be
particularly commended: firstly, the institution provides work for all convicted persons; secondly, the room
of a pedagogue or social worker has been furnished with the necessary working equipment (a computer, a
photocopier and a printer) and appropriate working conditions have been provided; third, on 22 April 2010,
the Head of the Unit has issued the Instructions for use of Electronic Communication number 02/2010. It is
also emphasized by the NPM that its recommendation has been partly realised in Maribor Prison - Rogoza
Open Unit where appropriate grab bars and a plastic seat for accommodation of the convicted persons
who are movement impaired have been placed into a bathroom and into a shower next to the prison. This
year, confusion on use or on price of telephone has arisen in some institutions which were visited (Maribor
Prison, Dob pri Mirni Prison - Closed Unit). According to this the practice of Maribor Prison is emphasized
which turned to the company with which it entered into a contract and gained the necessary information
which were published on the notice board and with which all prisoners were notified - that is considered
an example of good practice.
On the other hand, it also needs to be pointed out that Maribor Prison was the one location where the
most proposals and recommendations by the NPM to improve conditions and treatment with persons
deprived of their liberty were submitted, specifically, 25; in this regard, Ig Prison and Koper Prison also
stood out with 22 of such proposals and recommendations, and Ljubljana Prison - Novo mesto Unit with
15 proposals or recommendations. The total of 107 proposals or recommendations were submitted by
the NPM for all places of incarceration in 2013.
It was especially proposed by the NPM that Ig Prison examines the options of arrangement of a special
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2013
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT
77
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