Report on the visit to the Bistrita penitentiary

On May 23^rd, 2002, two representatives of APADOR-CH visited the Bistrita penitentiary.

Background

The profile of the unit is for detainees with convictions of up to 10 years of imprisonment. On the visit date there were 1033 detainees in the penitentiary (959 with final convictions, 27 in pre-trial custody, 43 sentenced in the first instance and 4 convicted for petty offences; 43 of the detainees are young and 2 are underage). The normal capacity of the penitentiary is for 837 and the number of installed beds is 948, which makes overcrowd not be a serious problem as compared to other penitentiaries. The detainees with final convictions are kept separately from the others. Also the detainees with repeated offence are separated from the detainees at the first offence, with the exception of the rooms that accommodate detainees considered as "very dangerous".

The total number of officers, in the organization chart, is 217, of which 203 positions were filled (in the operative units there were 146 officers, which means 1 officer for 7 detainees). The most acute problem is the absence of at least 2 officers in the cultural-educational department.

Because of lack of funds, in 1997, the penitentiary was forced to stop the investment that it started and which mainly consisted of three new detention facilities (until 1997 only part of a detention facility could be built).

On the visit day, there were 351 detainees at work (most of them, about 200, in construction work, with contract for the whole year, and about 100 at the vegetable and cattle breeding farm of the penitentiary and for service inside). The necessary amount of meat, eggs and milk is provided from the own vegetable and cattle breeding farm and partially the vegetables. Under an order of the GDP the penitentiary can negotiate contracts with the beneficiaries also below the minimum salary by economy, in case under such a contract work will be given to a bigger number of detainees for a longer time. The detainees that are taken out to work receive 10% of the salary plus a day of "earning" (that is deducted from the term in prison) for 3 days of work but only if they accomplish the norm, which is of 110%.

The disciplinary procedures for cases of breach of the inner rules and regulations require that the "reporting officer" does first the "incident report". The officer in charge of discipline who is doing the first investigation and notifies the discipline committee takes the report then. The committee makes the required verification - among others by hearing the respective detainees, regardless of the gravity of the breach and the envisaged sanction - and establishes the punishment. In case the detainees are discontent with the committee decision they can challenge it, first at the commander and then at the penitentiary prosecutor. In the penitentiary the chains are not used at all. On the visit day there were 34 detainees in the category "difficult and dangerous", who were accommodated in 3 rooms, together with other detainees (who were not in this category but who, for reasons belonging to penitentiary behavior are supervised more attentively as compared to the common detainees). According to the penitentiary management the category of "dangerous" includes the detainees with attempted escapes, those who are violent and those who harm themselves. The penitentiary representatives mentioned that the detainees are not included in this category on the basis of mere notes in their files, when they are brought to the penitentiary. The rule is that if such a note is not supported by documentation in detail and credible the detainees are not included in the category of dangerous detainees. The status of the dangerous detainees differs from the ordinary one only in that two officers instead of one supervise the exercise program. Every month, a special committee analyses the situation of the detainees in this category. The APADOR-CH representatives insisted that, in their opinion, it is utterly unnatural that the detainees who inflict pain to themselves be punished or included in the category of those that "are very dangerous". The main argument is that for a detainee who is in the situation to harm himself/herself, often very serious, the disciplinary punishments cannot be a discouraging factor and none in the least one to persuade him/her that they did wrong. Most of the detainees come to do these gestures because of some profound discontentment with their legal situation, the treatment in the penitentiary, with some family problems and some psychic disturbances. Punishing such people is, in the opinion of APADOR-CH, not only completely senseless but also liable to worsen their situation more. Worth mentioning is that in Bistrita the refusal to go out for work is not punished, the logic - which is also shared by the representatives of the association - being that such a punishment is meaningless as long as the penitentiary cannot provide work but for only a small number of detainees.

The association representatives noticed that the penitentiaries still use the former forms for the personal files of the detainees (mentioned there as bodies that order the arrest as the "militia" and the "securitate"). These forms provide as compulsory to mention the "ethnic origin" of the detainees, which, in the association opinion does not or should not have any justification. The word "gypsy" was written in that section "ethnic origin" of the file of detainee Romulus Pal, a file compiled on June 10-th 1999.

The discussion with the penitentiary officials showed certain rigidity in the way they see the daily program of the detainees. The association representatives had in view mostly that in fact in all the penitentiaries most of the detainees stay for years in the rooms, almost 24 hours a day, without any activity at all. Under these circumstances to impose to such people a regime often identical to that of the barracks is not justified. APADOR-CH does not plead for lack of organization and discipline in the penitentiary life, however it considers that it is not normal for the detainees - people who do nothing and stay in their rooms for 5, 10 or 20 years - be imposed to jump out of bed at 6 sharp, to "brush their teeth from 6.10 to 6.15”, to get ready for lunch from 12 to 12.05 etc. Of course some timeframe is mandatory in the daily program of a penitentiary (like the time to go to the medical ward, for exercise or to the club, time for meals, time to go to work or to court). However, in addition to some fixed hours, the opinion of APADOR-CH is that the schedule of the detainees should be as relaxed as possible. The representatives of APADOR-CH were not happy to find out about a recent order of the GDP, of April 19-th 2002, under which the refusal to go out for the daily exercise becomes a matter of breaching the internal rules. In order to motivate such decision, the order renders - in a truncated way - the minimum rules of the UNO in the field (which do not refer to the daily exercise as an obligation of the detainees but which establish a principle which the order of the GDP does not mention, that is, the detainees should be provided every day at least an hour of exercise, whereas the order of the GDP provided only for 30 minutes). In the association opinion, if the detainee eats his/her meal or not, if he/she wants to go out for exercise, to the club or to church this should be his/her personal option.

In 2001 and 2002, the penitentiary did not refuse any request for parole which the commission forwarded to the Bistrita court.

All the detainees - including those with final convictions - have to wear the penitentiary clothes. The association representatives had two observations to make about this matter. The first, that as regards the detainees who do not have final convictions this procedure runs contrary to international norms in the field and secondly that the experience of other penitentiary shows that nothing would run against the idea that all the detainees who have civilian clothes should be allowed to wear them in all the occasions (and anyway during the visits by the family). Although initially there have been observations about the fact that in this way the detainees who do not have the possibility to get clothes from home would be frustrated, the penitentiary management gave assurances that the issue raised would be analyzed with solicitude.

The APADOR-CH representatives remarked again that the commendable initiative of the GDP to set up a group of detainees with semi-open regime (at Bistrita there is no detainee in such a situation) was given up. The association does not believe that the escapes - few in number of some detainees in this kind of category, in a short period of time -, could be reason enough to give up the idea altogether and asks the GDP to resume the experiment.

Visit to the penitentiary

2.1. The food ward

For lunch they had lettuce soup and beans with meat, for everybody, and for diet (for 72) lettuce soup and pastry with meat; in the morning - crackers with marmalade and tea, for everybody and for diet eggs and milk (the 2 diabetics received also margarine); in the evening - pastry with bacon, for everybody and for diet potato stew. 88.5 kilos of pork, 19.6 kilos of byproducts of pork and 51 kilos of lard had been used for the two main meals. The detainees at diet get in the morning and in the evening some milk and every the other day a boiled egg. The food looked acceptable and the second dish, both for everybody and for diet, had meat in it. The kitchen was in a good hygiene condition and there is running hot water for washing the dishes and for the other needs in the food ward.

2.2. The lavatory

In 2001, the penitentiary gave up connection to the water supply network of the town and bought 9 small heat exchanges. Although there are showers in the detainees' rooms the hot water is only for the bath, as all the detainees take a weekly bath, about 10-15 minutes by groups (in the discussion with the association representatives, the deputy commander for security and penitentiary regime said the detainees had hot water at their showers in the rooms too). The penitentiary has no problems with the running water. The walls of the lavatory, which had 27 showerheads were peeling and dank. The bath days are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

2.3. The exercise wards

The penitentiary has two exercise wards, with some fitness equipment and a sports ground for volleyball and table tennis. One of the most serious problems of the penitentiary is that the detainees have only half an hour of exercise a day and only 4 days a week (excepted are Saturdays, Sundays and the day of the "administrative program and bath"). The explanation of the penitentiary officials that when they go out to do their barracks equipage and take a bath the detainees would also exercise is far from being a solution to this problem.

2.4. The medical ward

The penitentiary has 2 general practitioners, 1 dentist and 6 nurses (out of whom one for pharmacy). About 70 consultations and treatments are made during a day (at the dentistry, the average is 10-15 cases). The most frequent diseases are digestive, respiratory and dermatitis. There are 5 patients who have scab and 30 syphilis (contracted before coming to the Bistrita penitentiary, the doctors said). There are also 46 detainees with TB, out of whom 11 are under treatment; following recent medical investigation another 50 are suspected of TB. The penitentiary has 12 detainees with psychic disorders that might require treatment in a sanatorium. The special consultations are made at the clinic in town and the emergencies at the county hospital. When taken to the civilian hospitals the detainees are cuffed, with the exception of those "without guard" and those who are very ill. Both the representatives of the guard treatment department and those of the medical ward said the cuffing was an excessive measure, considering that each of them is practically escorted permanently by two armed non-commissioned officers. The penitentiary has no problems with providing the medicine. In case the detainees want to be given other medicine brought from outside they can do it either by using a prescription written by a doctor outside the system, approved by the penitentiary doctor, or one given by the medical ward (in both cases, the medicine are kept in the penitentiary pharmacy). The detainees in isolation are seen by the doctor everyday, when coming in and going out of the isolation cell.

In the medical ward there was detainee Szabo Cocis Petru, who had just come out of a 2 day - hunger strike. He had started it in December 2001, when lieutenant Miron "terrorized him psychically", cuffed him and put him in the solitary. The detainee complained that some officers do nothing to protect him from the mates that persecute him suspecting him of being an informer; when because of that he threatened "to cut himself" he was punished with 5 days of severe isolation and non-commissioned officer Gheorghe Rogozanu assaulted him.

At a recent meeting organized by the medical service of the GDP the possibility of distributing condoms to the detainees "within the limits of the funds available" in the future was considered.

In room 59, infirmary - current diseases - there were 20 detainees and 21 beds (installed in 3 rows). Detainee Constantin Badale (aged 85, convicted to 7 years for manslaughter, of which he executed 20 months) had had surgery for cataract and had serious problems with his back. Farkas Florian is a vegetarian and complained that sometimes "the kitchen people" mock at him and give him rotten food. The detainees said the food was good and so was the medical treatment. The lavatory, a separate room, had a concrete water spout with 3 taps, 1 shower head and 2 booths with water standing toilets, the latter out of order as water kept on running. There was a TV set and a loud speaker in the room.

2.5. The detention facilities

In restrictive regime (room 55), for 3 months, was Dorin Sima. Till this punishment he had had 10 incident reports, most of them because of the violent behavior -admitted by the detainee - to the colleagues; because of this behavior, seemingly due to a precarious psychical condition, his request for parole had recently been delayed by 1 year. He goes out for exercise everyday (cuffs at hands), but not on Saturday and Sunday and is supervised by two non-commissioned officers. He receives visits and parcels "with the approval of the commander" and cigarettes -– ¼ of the usual portion. There were 3 beds in the room; the standing water toilet was separated from the rest of the room only by a 1.5 meter-high wall. Sima said the food was acceptable.

In isolation (room 54) was for 5 days detainee Ion Vasile Roman. He had been punished for an altercation "with a non-commissioned officer from the workshops". For the same type of thing he had been previously punished 5 times, since 1998, when he came to Bistrita. He is taken out for exercise every day, in cuffs, with the exception of the days for bath, on Saturdays and Sundays. The detainees from isolation are not allowed any reading for the duration of the punishment execution (which in the opinion of the association is too much) and the barracks equipage and the bed sheets are taken away by the awrdens from waking to going to bed, between 6:00 and 22:00. In the room there were 2 concrete beds and 1 water standing toilet, separated from the rest of the room by a 1.7 meter-high wall.

In room 57 there were 27 beds and 26 detainees, most of them in the category of those that are “very dangerous". The daily exercise is of ½ hour (the exercise is not on Thursday, when there is the bath, on Saturday and Sunday). The detainees can give 1 – 2 phone calls a month, on the basis of an application filed to the penitentiary commander. The bath is once a week and every month the detainees get a razor blade, tooth paste, shaving cream and soap. There is a TV set in the room, brought from home by one of the detainees and a loud speaker. The lavatory is a separate room with a concrete waterspout. Detainee Bombi Nita made two requests last years to be transferred to one of the penitentiaries of Bucharest but both requests were denied for reasons of not having places. As his family - mother and sister - is in Bucharest, the detainee has further maintained his request of being transferred.

Room 48 (the detainees who work and detainees for repeated offense). In the room there were 60 detainees in 51 beds and the air in the room was not breathable. The detainees did not complain about their conditions in the penitentiary: the quality of food, medical assistance, the TV program (all the rooms in the penitentiary have TV - part of them brought from home by the detainees - and the program is from 9:00 to 22:00; on Saturday and Sunday - until 24.00 or 1.00 a.m.). The bath is taken once a week and the detainees get a razor blade every two months, as well as shaving cream, toothpaste (one in three months), soap and toilet paper. The discontent of the detainees is about the overcrowd (they sleep three in two beds sometimes) and about the very short daily exercise (of 20 to 30 minutes and only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). The lavatory is a separate room with a concrete waterspout, a showerhead and two booths with water standing toilets.

Detainee Victor Radeanu, aged 50 has a conviction of 5 and a half years, of which he served 1 year and 7 months. He looked very bad, he is a cardiac, has one lung only, cirrhosis and hemiplegia.

Vasile Trifan was very discontent that he had been transferred "without any explanation from Bacau". Although he said the conditions of Bistrita were better than Bacau, Trifan was discontent that in Bacau he could work and "gain days" from the conviction. He insisted on having always been a detainee who posed no problems and asked the penitentiary management to approve of his going out to work here too.

2.6. The cultural-educational department

The penitentiary has a good cooperation relation with the post-graduate school of social workers “Carol Davila” of Bistrita, the Association of social workers of Transylvania, the post-graduate school “Louis Pasteur” and the League of the Orthodox Youth. 12 programs are underway destined mainly for the post-release period and moral and civic education of the detainees. Twice a week the department develops special programs with the "difficult" and "dangerous" detainees. There are about 80 illiterates in the penitentiary in charge of them being especially one of the detainees who is a graduate of high school; classes for primary education - grades I to IV are being organized. Exhibitions have been organized in town with paintings, Gobelin tapestry made by the detainees. The detainees with skills contribute to the 2 monthly magazines “Promisiune” (Promise) and “Gazeta volanta” (The Gazette) each in three copies that circulate from room to room.

No probation service has been organized so far with the Bistrita Court. In exchange, the penitentiary is about to finalize a protocol with the representatives in the area of the Pentecostal denomination in order to arrange a center for social reintegration of the detainees who have serious problems when discharged. The project is to build a "house" where lodging and food for about 60-70 detainees released from prison be secured (the center will also try to find jobs for the former detainees). On the date of the visit the statute of the future center had been finalized. Similarly, 2 detainees recently released lived in an apartment in Bistrita provided by the Pentecostal community and a third detainee had been given something to work on the farm land of one of the families in that community.

2.7. The visits ward

Spaces are arranged for receiving 11 visits at a time (6 ordinary, 4 at tables and 1 at the cabin, for the detainees considered dangerous). The ward is thus arranged so as the detainees can see what is in the parcels that the supervisors take from their visitors.

In the visits ward there are 2 public phones and the supervisors who stand in this room can hear what the detainees talk. For the approval and record of telephones the penitentiary uses a form valid for a longer period of time, however the association representatives did not find it clear how these method works as 10 signatures are needed for the approval.

At the initiative of the GDP, the penitentiary management organized a consultation of the detainees on giving up the parcels from home and opening a store in the penitentiary with foodstuff, beverages, cigarettes and other things necessary to the detainees. About 90% of the detainees said yes to the initiative of opening a store (a result that was quite close to that of many other penitentiaries). Although APADOR-CH thinks the initiative of GDP is a positive one it believes this should not be made absolute in any way and it should give the detainees who can easily get the food from their families the possibility of doing this. The association suggests that the detainees that are not visited should have priority for selection to work (of course if they meet the established requirements). In this way they could have the chance of doing some shopping, with the money earned, at the future stores.

3. The discussion with detainee Daniel Talpiga

The detainee claimed that on April 25^th 2002 he and his mates of room 57 were the victims of a group of intervention that "came from town". Pretending that in the toilet of room 57 there was a "stoned" detainee (who afterwards was found to have sniffed steam from a bowl with glue), 6-7 military, "armed to their teeth" and with cagoules on their faces broke into the room, put all the detainees to the floor and hit some of them with the fists and boots on their heads, including Talpiga. On the same day, a search was carried out in the room, two bed sheets, two bottles with water and a mirror were taken from Talpiga. The detainee also complained that he was kept at the dangerous section because he escaped almost 10 years ago, although in 2001 he had an interruption of the term in prison and he came back without any delay.

The penitentiary officials admitted that on April 25-th a group of intervention from the Gherla penitentiary came "on a visit" to the penitentiary; the group obviously made an excessive and illegal intervention in room 57 (in the initial discussion the penitentiary representatives denied anything like this). The fact that detainee Talpiga was taken some objects about which the APADOR-CH representatives had not heard in another penitentiary to be considered "forbidden" was explained by the "legal provisions in this respect". In the opinion of APADOR-CH, forbidding - by regulation or just by practice - some objects such as the ones taken from Talpiga is completely groundless. In the case of detainee Daniel Talpiga such a treatment is so much harder to understand, as the penitentiary staff know very well that -because of previous discontentment - not long ago he tried to commit suicide.

Conclusions

APADOR-CH believes that the penitentiary generally ensures decent conditions to the detainees. The fact that there are no major tensions between the detainees and the staff is due especially to the management preoccupation in this respect, the operative officers and the staff of the cultural-educational department, as well as to the quality of medical assistance and food.

In spite of all this, the penitentiary management should:

Seek urgently solutions for extending the exercise program of the detainees to at least one hour a day, including on the day with the administrative program;

Should design in such a manner the daily program of the detainees so as to be less rigid than the current program, in the sense of rendering compulsory only those activities and timetables which if not observed could impair the running of the penitentiary and its services;

To consider the possibility of giving up the punishment of the detainees who inflict pain to themselves;

To give up the groundless interdictions that are imposed to the detainees regarding the goods and objects that they have on them (in the association opinion forbidding the bed sheets and underwear, mires, porcelain jugs etc from home is not justified);

To carefully explore the possibility of detainees - especially those on pretrial detention - to wear their own clothes;

To examine with understanding the situation of detainee Daniel Talpiga (see item 3);

Detainee Victor Radeanu should be advised and supported in the legal actions that he is doing in order to be discharged (see item 2.5., room 48);

To do the repair work in the penitentiary lavatory;

To simplify the form for telephone calls, as designed by the penitentiary which includes useless columns and requires too many approvals from various departments.

APADOR-CH asks the GDP:

To analyze the possibility of continuing investment in the detention unit, which was stopped in 1997 and to fill in the two vacant positions of officers at the cultural-educational department;

To order verification of what happened on the occasion of the visit of the group of intervention from the Gherla penitentiary (see item 3) and take necessary measures;

To give up the order of the GDP of April 19, 2002 under which the refusal of a detainee to go out for exercise was considered as breach of the Internal Rules and Regulations and hence subject to disciplinary measures.

Manuela Stefanescu
Valerian Stan