The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe expressed is concern about the method of implementing the preventive and compensatory mechanism, especially as regards the periods for examining the cases in court. It indicated that the compensation set by the legislation for a day of detention in poor conditions (about €2.55) is too small. The Committee also expressed its concern about the high imprisonment rate and the delay in erecting a new penitentiary, IPN reports.
As regards medical assistance, the Committee highly appreciated the measures taken by the Government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the penitentiary system and encouraged that these efforts should be continued. Nevertheless, the Committee asked that the Government should ensure the CPT standards on health care services in the penitentiary system are met.
According to Promo-LEX program director Vadim Vieru, the Committee of Ministers underlined the importance of ensuring the putting into practice of internal remedies complies with the requirements of the Convention, also as regards the examination of complaints from detainees and the provided compensation. It invited the authorities to furnish information about the preventive remedying applications and statistics about the application of compensatory remedy.
The Committee reiterated its call to the authorities to swiftly inform about all the developments in the process of reforming the system for reducing punishments and to closely cooperate in this regard.
It also invited the authorities, until March 31, 2022, to provide information about the implementation of preventive and compensatory remedies and about the alternative measures applied to improve the precarious detention conditions and the measures taken to further improve the health care services in prisons.
