Council of Europe expresses concern over pre-trial detention in Poland
The Council of Europe (CoE) has raised concerns over the conditions of pre-trial detention in Poland, saying that remand prisoners can remain locked in their cells for 23 hours a day.
The report was compiled by the CoE's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), and examined the general state of Poland's prisons.
It said that prisoners held on remand, in particular, have to endure hard conditions.
"The CPT regrets to note that the regime for remand prisoners has remained extremely impoverished. Indeed, the vast majority of remand prisoners still spent days and months on end in a state of idleness, with no meaningful activities, locked up in their cells for up to 23 hours per day," the CPT said.
Some of the report's greatest concerns were raised over prison conditions.
"As regards prisons, the CPT regrets to note yet again that, despite its long-standing previous recommendations, the official minimum standard of 3 (square metres - PAP) of living space per prisoner (excluding sanitary facilities) has remained unchanged," the committee wrote.
The report also said the CPT "deplores yet again the very poor level of cooperation from the Polish authorities at central level."
The committee threatened to demand from Poland a public explanation of the issues raised in the report.
"The Committee must stress that if no progress is made by the Polish authorities to fundamentally improve the level of their cooperation with the Committee, including as regards the implementation of the CPT's long-standing recommendations, the Committee is likely to be obliged to have recourse to Article 10, paragraph 2, of the Convention," the committee wrote. "The CPT expects that urgent and decisive action by the Polish authorities will render such action unnecessary."
The committee also wrote that it was "very concerned" by the fact that "after its seventh periodic visit to Poland, no real action has been taken to implement its long-standing recommendations as regards the practical operation of fundamental legal safeguards for persons in police custody, as well as on some other issues such as remand prisoners' restrictions on contact with the outside world and the inadequate screening for injuries on arrival to remand prisons."
The apparent failure by the Polish authorities to implement other of the committee's previous recommendations also came under fire from the committee.
"Throughout their dialogue with the Polish authorities, the CPT has repeatedly emphasised that three fundamental rights (the rights of detained persons to notify a third party of their detention and to have access to both a lawyer and a doctor) should apply from the very outset of a person's deprivation of liberty," the report states. "However, the delegation's findings from the 2022 visit suggest that, as in the past, these safeguards usually do not become effective from the outset of deprivation of liberty." (PAP)
ej/md
