Minister of Justice: Children not to live in prison cells without toilets much longer

Prison director says that female inmates live in worse conditions than men

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Keeping children in prison cells without toilets is to come to an end at the turn of the year, promised Minister of Justice Tuija Brax (Green League) in Parliament on Wednesday.
      The Hämeenlinna women’s prison still has several cells without toilets, accommodating mothers with their small children. Currently the prison has both male and female inmates.
     
These children are spending the first months of their lives locked in cells, in conditions where their mothers are forced to urinate and defecate in buckets.
      There has not been enough money for renovations, even though plans to repair the building have existed already for many years.
     
”Most of the prisons for men have been renovated and all cells have been equipped with toilets, but for some reason, female inmates have always been forgotten”, says Tuomo Kärjenmäki, the director of the Hämeenlinna Prison.
      ”Among the stains on Finland’s reputation, this is probably the most shocking, but it will be removed soon”, Brax confirmed.
      ”The aim is to finally treat these children in compliance with the human rights of children”, the minister added.
     
A more detailed plan is to be disclosed later this autumn, when the amendments to child welfare legislation and the Prison Act that are being prepared under Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko (National Coalition Party) have been completed.
      The government’s human rights policy was debated in Parliament on Wednesday.
      In that connection, the issue of prison cells with no toilets was also brought up, as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has repeatedly admonished Finland for the existence of such prison cells.
     
The government’s report on the human rights policy of Finland reveals that Finnish prisons had a maximum bed capacity of 508 in cells with no toilets at the beginning of the current year.
      More than 100 such beds have been taken out of use this year, while the remaining beds - excluding the 126 in Hämeenlinna - are to be disposed of in 2011. As many as 84 beds in cells with buckets are being occupied by women.
      However, Tuija Brax has now promised that babies and small children will be removed from the cells with no toilets at the Hämeenlinna Prison by the beginning of next year.
     
The Hämeenlinna Prison is a minimum security prison with a ward for mothers and their children where prisoners may be allowed to take their small children with them if it is in the best interest of the children.
      Children can stay in closed institutions until they are two years old and in open institutions until they are three years old.
      Besides the Hämeenlinna Prison, female prisoners can be allocated to eight other prisons in Finland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Inmates at women´s prison produce stage version of Little Red Riding Hood (26.5.2009)

Links:
  European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
  Prison Service: Placement and Allocation of Prisoners

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