The authorities have drafted regulations that are designed to simplify the procedure of medical examination of seriously ill detainees for freeing them from serving their sentence or for replacing or annulling remand detention. According to data of the Ministry of Justice, over the past five years more than half of the medically examined convicts died while waiting for a decision. The draft regulations that were published for public consultations also contain the list of diseases that prevent people from being in detention, IPN reports.
The Ministry of Justice said the seriously ill detainees should be offered the opportunity to receive complex treatment at home or in a civil medical institution when the disease prevents them from serving their sentence or being in remand detention or from spending the last days of their lives decently with their family.
“For example, between 2017 and 2021, the Special Medical Commission constituted within the National Administration of Penitentiaries examined 50 seriously ill people, of whom 26 people died in detention, while 24 were released. For 2021, out of 14 convicted persons examined, nine died before a decision was issued by the judge of inquiry. In 2022, out of 10 convicted persons examined, three died before a court’s decision was passed, six people were released, while one person was released in connection with the full serving of the sentence,” says the draft Government decision.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the drafting of a new document regulating the internal procedures for identifying, selecting, examining and submitting to the court the request for freeing from serving the sentence or for the replacement, cancelation of preventive detention is necessary to simplify and streamline the existing procedures which, in practice, are excessively lengthy and often do not achieve their intended purpose.
“The prevention of death in prisons of seriously ill prisoners who are eligible for release can be achieved by reducing the number of examination and evaluation committees, i.e. presenting files to a single commission without other commissions needing to make prior decisions, eliminating bureaucracy from the notification process and setting clear deadlines for each decision-maker involved in this procedure,” the Ministry specified.
This way, the draft simplifies the procedures for ascertaining and managing new cases of serious disease or worsening illness in order to ensure freeing from punishment or replacement or annulment of remand detention in the shortest period of time possible from the moment such a case is identified.
