Anti-torture committee criticises Finnish prison conditions again

Ministry of Justice: tone of report sharper than before

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The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) is taking more severe view than before on shortcomings that it sees in the Finnish prison system.
      “The tone is slightly sharper than before, perhaps because the committee is having to point out the same things for a fourth time”, says Ulla Mohell, a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Justice.
      The committee also comments on current debate on Finnish prisons by urging Finland to bring forward planned renovations, so that all prisoners would have access to toilets around the clock well before 2015.
     
The committee first took issue with cells with just a bucket for a toilet already in its first report on Finland in 1992. Nevertheless, there were still 508 cells in Finnish prisons that lacked a flush toilet in April of last year, when the committee was in Finland to gather material for the report that it issued on Tuesday.
      According to the report, the situation was worst in the northern wing of the Helsinki Prison, where inmates have to use buckets between 4:30 PM and 7:10 AM, and bottled water for drinking and washing.
     
The committee also repeats its previous criticism of remand prisoners being kept in police lockups, where they can spend weeks or months without any stimulating activities.
      The report contains numerous other observations, recommendations, and requests for further information, related to the legal protection of inmates, prevention of violence among prisoners, and health care services.
     
The state is required to give a report on if it has reduced the isolation of committed psychiatric patients.
      The observers say that the Vaasa Psychiatric Hospital has resorted to the isolation of patients too easily. One in three patients were kept in isolation in 2007, even though the committee feels that isolation should be seen as a last resort.
      The committee was also concerned about the way decisions are made on coercive treatment. Finnish courts tend to rely on statements from hospitals, without hearing the views of the patients themselves. The committee compares the actions of the courts with that of a “rubber stamp”.
     
Finland should also consider setting up a new facility for the detention of foreigners; the committee notes that because of lack of space, foreigners who are detained need to be kept in police lockups.
      The report reveals that in one case last spring, a guard used a taser to subdue a psychiatric patient, who was attacking him.
      In the view of the Human Rights Committee, a taser should be used only if someone’s life is in danger, and this was clearly not the case in the situation in question.
      The Finnish government is required to give a response to the report within six months.


Links:
  Report on Finland by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)

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