Disciplinary procedure Standards applicable to inmates on whom disciplinary sanctions have been imposed were presented by the CPT in its report on the visit held in 2013.183 During the 2017 visit, the Committee found that no progress in this regard had been made. Inmates were not systematically heard prior to the imposition of a sanction. They were generally not informed (or only informed orally) of the available avenues of appeal against the disciplinary sanction and did not receive a copy of the disciplinary decision. The Committee called upon the Polish authorities to eliminate these deficiencies184. Both visited establishments failed to implement the recommendation. Prisoners, before being placed in an isolation cell, attended a meeting with the director the establishment. In their opinion, however, the conversation was a pure formality and consisted in communicating the sanctions. The remand prison Warszawa-Białołęka had some inmates who reported they had not been informed of the possibility to appeal against the decision (but this was not a rule). Some inmates claimed that they had not received a copy of the decision on the disciplinary sanction. At the remand prison Warszawa-Służewiec none of the interviewees remembered whether they had been informed about the possibility of appealing against the decision. One of the inmates received a copy of the decision only when he asked for it; another one claimed that he had not received a copy at all. Period of placement in an isolation cell The CPT was also concerned by the fact that the maximum legally authorised period of placement in a disciplinary isolation cell for sentenced prisoners (28 days) has not been shortened. The Committee calls upon the Polish authorities to amend the relevant legislation so as to align the maximum period of placement of sentenced prisoners in disciplinary isolation with the provisions regarding remand prisoners i.e. 14 days. Further, there should be a prohibition of sequential disciplinary sanctions resulting in an uninterrupted period of solitary confinement in excess of the maximum period. Any offences committed by a prisoner which it is felt call for more severe sanctions should be dealt with through the criminal justice system185. Both visited establishments failed to implement the recommendation. Cases of placing a prisoner in an isolation cell for a period exceeding 14 days were, yet, very rare in the visited establishments. At the remand prison Warszawa-Białołęka, in the years 2018-2020 there was only one 183 See: CPT report on the visit to Poland, CPT/Inf (2018) 39, para. 99. 184 See: CPT report on the visit to Poland, CPT/Inf (2018) 39, para. 87. 185 Ibid., para. 88. 76