Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2017 Juvenile detention centres, juvenile shelters as well as youth care centres Systemic problems The most pressing issue that needs to be solved with respect to minors placed in youth care centres, juvenile shelters and juvenile detention centres (JDC) is the drafting of a new parliamentary act on juvenile delinquency proceedings. The Act, in the NMPT’s opinion, should regulate the issues of: juvenile residents’ access to medical care (including specialist care for pregnant minors), video surveillance, tests detecting the presence of alcohol and intoxicating substances, as well as contacts between juvenile residents and their parents, legal guardians and attorneys. The Commissioner has already brought that issue to the attention of the Minister of National Education and the Minister of Justice. In response to the NMPT’s report for 2016 the Ministry of National Education presented a list of problems and issues that will be analysed during a meeting of a special Taskforce dealing with juvenile delinquency proceedings89. It could be concluded, in turn, from the reply presented by the Ministry of Justice90, that a special team was appointed to analyse the legal regulations pertaining to juvenile delinquency proceedings that have been in effect so far, adapt those regulations to currently applicable standards and develop new legal solutions which would also address the problems highlighted by the NMPT and encountered in places of detention. What still remains to be solved is the problem of an effective mechanism for lodging complaints by juveniles. That issue was discussed in the NMPT’s report for 2015.91 89 90 91 Ref. no. DWKI-WSPE.5015.52.2017.KT. Ref. no. DWMPC-III-850-2/18 Cf. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights concerning the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2015, p. 37 37