The Ombudsperson published Report from the monitoring of Correctional Centre for Females and Juveniles in Lipjan
The Ombudsperson has delivered to the responsible authorities the Report from the visit conducted on 7th and 19th of October to the Correctional Centre for Females and Juveniles, accomplished by Ombudsperson’s National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), in compliance with Article 17 of the Law 05/L-019 on Ombudsperson.
Lipjan Correctional Centre for Females and Juveniles is a semi-open type institution, the only one in the Republic of Kosovo where several categories of prisoners are placed, such as: juveniles with educational measure, convicted juveniles and detained juveniles as well as convicted females, detained females and female juveniles.
The Report reiterates that since July 2013 the responsibility for healthcare in the Correctional Service was transferred from Ministry of Justice to Ministry of Health and points out that European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in the Report for the visit in Kosovo in 2015 paid particular attention to the medical screening, especially of newly-arrived prisoners or detainees, not only for detecting (transmissible) diseases and preventing suicides, but also for contributing to the prevention of torture through the proper recording of injuries . NPMT ascertains that Correctional Centre and other centres where detainees and prisoners are accommodated still have no possibilities to conduct systematic screening for tuberculosis and transmissible diseases such as: TBC, HBS, HCV and HIV, thus it encourages relevant authorities to take serious actions to enable such systematic medical check-ups and to include more details on the records regarding the cause of body injuries and self-injuries, including photos together with the date of the occurrence screenings for convicted persons. NPMT encourages such an attitude and practice of non-presence of security officers during the administration of medical services, so that medical are offered outside the observation and hearing of correctional officers in order to maintain confidentiality and the doctor-patient relation, except in specific cases.
During the visit NPMT has noticed a tense atmosphere between juvenile and correctional officers and among juveniles themselves and informed the director of Correctional Centre in Lipjan about this and asked to be notified on the outcome of the investigation. Report brings into attention that the European Committee for Torture Prevention, related to the violence between the detained persons has pointed out the responsibility of the state to protect detainees form other detainees who aim to harm them as well as points out addressing of the issue of violence between detainees and requests that prison personnel is appropriately trained in order to timely intervene and manage such situations. NPMT ascretains that undertaking of approprate actions as well as implementation of of more professional psycho-social programmes, will facilitate decreasing of tensions and the violence among the juveniles and ought to be a priority for relevant authorities.
No complaint has been addressed to NPMT by convicted females, detained females and female juveniles accommodated in this Centre for ill-treatment or excessive use of force.
NPMT encourages relevant authorities to improve material accommodation conditions of juveniles. Furthermore the Report includes other relevant information as per juveniles’ transfer in the new correctional center, food, education and professional upbringing of people detained in this Center, their engagement outside the cell, press availability, TV and the literature.
During the visit NPMT received no complaints from juveniles related to the right to receive visits as well as of the right to phone calls.
As per admission procedure, Lipjan Correctional Centre keeps a record with complete information regarding convicted or detained persons, accommodated in this Centre.
NPMT observed that Directory of Lipjan Correctional Centre provides adequate possibilities for filing complaints and submissions; it reviews them and submits a response to the accommodated persons in this Centre.
NPMT ascertains that during the visit the Correctional Centre personnel as well as Prison’s Health Department personnel provided the monitoring team with full cooperation, provided necessary information and enabled meeting with convicted persons and detained without the presence of the correctional officers or other personnel.
Ombudsperson’s NPMT through this Report has addressed respective recommendations to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health.
The Report from monitoring of Correctional Centre for females and juveniles in its fill form is available for the public on OI official web page and is disseminated to media as well.