REPORT on the visit to the Oradea penitentiary
On April 3, 2001, two representatives of APADOR-CH visited the penitentiary in Oradea.
1. Generalities
The penitentiary, serving the county of Bihor, was built in 1852. It was closed in 1977, to be reopened six years later, in 1983. As of the visit date, some of the detention areas were under renovation and upgrading (in the winter, the administrative building was renovated).
The design capacity of the penitentiary is 574 beds. On the visit day there were 802 detainees in the penitentiary (692 men, 89 women and 21 minor). The total number of staff is 207, out of which 160 work in the operative department.
The following detainees were used for work: 35 detainees cleaning the city of Oradea based on a permanent contract with the City Hall; 10 detainees digging for a construction firm, where they made an income higher than ROL 1.4 million, the current minimum wage; 80 women working on assembling "Kinder" egg toys, making an income close to the minimum wage; a higher income is made by the 115 detainees assembling shoe parts; there are 52 detainees work on repair works for buildings and roofs, while 87 detainees work in the prison farm, out of which 18 in a semi-open regime. The detainees who do not wish to work do not receive disciplinary punishments.
The prison farm includes around 1,400 pigs, 90 cattle and 1000 poultry, as well as 43 hectares of farming land, and other 50 hectares leased. The necessary quantities are fully met for the meat and partially for fodder.
Around a third of the detainees are of Hungarian nationality, all of them speak Romanian and there are no communication problems or any problems related to the interethnic or inter-confessional relationships. The penitentiary employed an orthodox priest and representatives of other cults are allowed in the penitentiary – and they come, especially Reformats and Catholics – with no restrictions. The foundation "Europe for Europe", Prison Fellowship and representatives of Rroma organisations unfold programmes with the detainees in the penitentiary.
Within the disciplinary procedures, the detainee with incident reports are summoned and heard with no exception by the disciplinary commission, irrespective to the potential punishment (and not only, as it happens in other penitentiaries, for the isolation punishments). The detainees are categorised as "dangerous" only for well grounded reasons rather than on the basis of insufficiently documented information from the police or SIPA. The situation of detainees categorised as "dangerous" is analysed on a monthly basis and, the case be it, the categorisation is revised. At the Oradea penitentiary the chains are not used for immobilising the detainees. An officer is currently investigated by the Military Prosecutor’s Office (following a complaint from a detainee sustaining that he was hit by that officer) and another was punished recently with 5 days of grounding in the penitentiary by the deputy general director of the General Directorate for Penitentiaries for slapping a detainee twice.
2. The visit to the penitentiary
2.1 The food ward
The food ward was subject to capital repairs and is now functional, with adequate hygienic and sanitary conditions. The daily menu was: no diet – breakfast – tea, biscuits and marmalade; lunch – potato soup and beans with meat; dinner – cabbage with lard; diet (87 portions) – breakfast – eggs, tea, marmalade and bread; lunch – potato soup and rice with eat; dinner – canned vegetables. There are 11 Muslim detainees who are provided an adequate menu. For the meals on the day of the visit were used 83.6 kilos of meat, 23 kilos of meat sub-products and 52.4 kilos of lard plus 2.7 kilos of beef for the Muslim detainees. The main course of the diet menu had meat but the beans with meat for the no diet menu had more lard than meat.
2.2 The detention facilities
Section 1 (cells – "dangerous" detainees, isolation rooms and restrictive regime)
In room 2 – "dangerous" detainees – 4 persons were accommodated in 4 beds. There was a sink and a sit-on water closet in the room, separated from the rest of the room by a plastic curtain. The daily exercise (from Monday till Friday) takes between 30 and 60 minutes, when the detainees may also play football. On Saturdays and Sundays the detainees bathe and clean the rooms. They are allowed to watch the TV between 1:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and between 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. (oddly, on Saturdays and Sundays they are allowed to watch the TV an hour less). The detainees said that they are allowed to make 2 or 3 phone calls every month, following an application to the prison director (where they have to specify the phone number they want to call, the person with whom they want to talk and the reason for which they request the phone call). During the conversation, the accompanying non-commissioned officer keeps a distance allowing him to hear want the detainee is saying. Although the detainees are allowed to wear clothes brought from home, during the visits they have to wear the prison uniforms. They are in general satisfied with the conditions and the treatment in the penitentiary. Their only dissatisfaction – which is understood by the three representatives of APADOR-CH, taking into account the fact that the daily occupations are practically lacking – is related to the fact that they are allowed to watch the TV too little time.
There was nobody in the punishment isolation room. The room has 2 metallic beds, one water closet (not separated from the rest of the room) and a concrete waterspout with a tap.
The restrictive regime room has also two metallic beds and an identical lavatory as the isolation room. The difference is that here the mattresses are not removed during the day time. Here was detainee Andon Ni]\ Berchi, who was transferred to Oradea from the Satu Mare penitentiary (where he was punished to restrictive regime). The detainee says he was sanctioned without any guilt. In the room where he stayed in Satu Mare there was, on a night around 2 a.m., an escape attempt in which he had not been involved and of which he had known absolutely nothing. In the penitentiary file there is an explanatory report on what had happened in Satu Mare and the measure taken against the detainee. Every time he is taken out of the room, Berchi is handcuffed. He is to be transferred to Aiud.
In room 16, "dangerous" detainees, there were 12 persons in 10 beds. The lavatory consisted from a sit-on water closet, separated from the rest of the room by a canvas curtain, and a sink. Unlike the other rooms visited by the representatives of the association, all the detainees accommodated here expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the detention conditions. They have cockroaches and lice in the room and the hard mattresses have not been replaced for years (which explains the fact that the disinfection cannot do much about it). The detainees do nothing all day long. They have no chess or rummy games, they are not even allowed to bring playing cards from home. Their only preoccupation is to watch the TV, yet they also complained about the fact that they are allowed to watch it very little time. Similarly, there are complaints regarding the interdiction, hard to explain for the representatives of APADOR-CH, to get radios or tape recorders from home. The daily exercise takes between 10 and 30 minutes. The detainees complained that the balls they manufacture from rags to play football during the exercise time are confiscated (when leaving the detention unit, the representatives of the association saw however that the detainees in the exercise yard had a ball made of rags and were playing football). A special situation is that more detainees are forced to the same razor blade, which represents a serious risk of spreading various diseases among the detainees. This situation is the result of the very norms in force – one razor blade a month for four detainees (in March, 200 blades were distributed to the 800 detainees). The detainees cannot refuse to shave since they are not allowed to grow a beard.
On last New Year’s Eve, detainee Achim Banciu broke a window by mistake and was beaten by Major Popa and placed for 10 days in the isolation room. He repeatedly requested, unsuccessfully though, to be heard by the prison director and to be allowed to complain to the Military Prosecutor’s Office about Major Popa’s behaviour. Because he did not succeed, the detainee tried to commit suicide by hanging himself (the representatives of the association could see on Banciu’s neck the marks that may have been left by a suicide attempt by hanging).
Traian Varga was placed here three weeks before, after having carried out a 10 day punishment in the isolation room. He requested the supervising non-commissioned officer to let him speak to a detainee. Because he refused, Varga talked dirty to him, yet afterwards the non-commissioned officer said that the detainee had had the intention to hit him. The detainee strongly denied that he had had such intent and requested, unsuccessfully, that the witnesses to what happened to be heard. Marin Stavarache said that in June 2000, when transferred from Bucure[ti-Jilava to Aiud, his tape recorder was seized. Although he has complained on several occasions, including to the leadership of the General Directorate for Penitentiaries, he has not yet got his tape recorder back. Otto Hamza believes that he received 3 isolation punishments totalling 25 days because he talked to the TV reporters from Pro TV.
The penitentiary has only one exercise yard of around 20 by 15 m. Other two yards have been designed and will be finalised with the reorganisation and renovation of the detention and administration facilities.
The representatives of the association were surprised to find out that all the detainees had their heads shaven when transferred to and from other penitentiaries. The penitentiary leadership assured the representatives of the association that such practice – which was unique in the penitentiary system to the knowledge of APADOR-CH – was no longer applied since one or two months.
Section IV - women.
In room 59, there were 5 female detainees in 4 beds. The room had one sit-on water closet (separated by a curtain) and a sink. The section had only one TV set so the detainees watch it by turns. In the bathroom of this section only the laundry is washed (hot water does not go up to this floor), the detainees bathe in the main bathroom of the penitentiary. After work, the women are brought hot water in their rooms. The detainees are satisfied with their conditions. The section’s bathroom can only be used as a hothouse. Since the hot water has not enough pressure the women wash themselves in washbasins and, once a week, they are taken to the common bathroom. Detainee Aranka L\c\tu[ is 60 years old and her sentence was interrupted for health reasons since she suffers from ischemic cardiopathy and oscillating blood pressure.
Section V – minors
In room 79 there were 20 minors in 20 beds. The room has been recently renovated and it looked good. The bed mattresses and sheets were also new. The lavatory included a water closet and a sink and other two sinks were in the room. On the day of the visit and the previous days the minors went out for work, replacing the roof of one of some of the buildings of the penitentiary. They also participate sometimes in the penitentiary club; two weeks before they had a quiz show on sports theme. Three of the minors, of Hungarian origin, are illiterate and participate once every two days to alphabetisation courses (organised exclusively in Romanian).
Other rooms within the minors’ section were under renovation as well as the section’s bathroom.
2.3 The medical cabinet
The penitentiary has currently only one general practitioner (the other position is vacant since the retirement of the respective physician) and 3 nurses. The stomatological services are provided by an outside doctor working four hours a day, from Monday to Thursday. The general practitioner also deals with the staff (only when he finishes with the detainees for about one hour a day). The daily average of the consultations given by the general practitioner is around 70. The detainees committed in civilian hospitals are chained to the feet. APADOR-CH insists on giving up to this method or at least the doctors should be consulted. The decision is currently up to the guarding department.
The infirmary
In room 109 there were 6 beds accommodating 5 detainees suffering from stabilised tuberculosis. The exercise takes around one hour daily. The sick detainees did not make particular problems. In room 110 there were 5 sick detainees (in 8 beds). Detainee Virgil Furtos, 56, had a very bad condition. He suffers from high blood pressure, ischemic cardiopathy and had very swollen feet. He came back recently from an interrupted punishment for medical reasons (that was the second one). Virgil Furtes carried out around half of his 6 year sentence. The opinion of the APADOR-CH representatives was that the situation of this detainee should be presented to the leadership of the General Directorate for Penitentiaries as a special case (the leadership of the penitentiary decided that this would happen during the following month). There was a TV set in the room and the lavatory had a water closet and a sink.
2.4 The socio-educational department
The socio-educational department has 2 officers and 2 non-commissioned officers. There are currently 3 vacancies, including the psychologist position. After the adoption of this year’s budget, these positions will be opened and tentatively filled in. The department organised a theatre therapy programme with the minor detainees (the educators propose a theme and the children "play" various "scenes", including arrests and crime stories). In addition to that, they organise quiz shows as well as little shows, especially on holidays. On a weekly basis the department collects the unclear issues regarding the legal and administrative situation of detainees, and an officer from the recording department replies to these questions.
Not long ago, the department organised within its own regie autonome "Multiproduct" a qualification course in various professions, which was attended by 17 detainees, which will be organised soon for another 6 detainees. During 1999, The Humanitarian Service for Penitentiaries organised a qualification in brick lying. When finishing the course, the organisation left the penitentiary the equipment brought for the course, including office equipment. The organisation Prison Fellowship unfolds a religious education programme with the women detained in the penitentiary. There are around 120 illiterate detainees, 26 of whom were attending the alphabetisation course, exclusively in Romanian. APADOR-CH considers that the penitentiary leadership should consider the possibility to also employ a teacher who should teach the ethnic Hungarians in their mother tongue.
2.5 Other departments visited
Two more detention units and a pavilion for manufacturing workshops are under construction.
The visit ward has various facilities (at tables, regular and in booths). The detainees are visited in alphabetical order, except from the visitors coming from another county, who are also received outside the appointments. For the Easter holiday, the detainees will have the right to another 5 kilos of food from home. The penitentiary has only one public phone (3 more phones will be installed in the detention areas). Near the phone there was a warning saying "Phone calls are surveyed". The APADOR-CH representatives requested the penitentiary leadership to remove the warning and to ensure the real privacy of the phone calls made by detainees. The Romanian Constitution assimilates the telephone conversations to the written correspondence and imposes in their case the strict observance of privacy. Of course, it is possible that there are cases imposing the surveillance of one detainee’s correspondence, yet this has to comply with the law, based on a legal warrant and very precise legal procedures.
In the "inward" work point 45 detainees were assembling shoe components (working hours were from 6:00 A.M. to 12:00 A.M. The detainees could not specify their monthly income. They were more interested in the number of won days rather than the money that was interesting only to the extent they could do some shopping (yet only after exceeding a limit, ROL 150,000, according to some, ROL 250,000 ROL, according to others.
3. Conclusions
Manuela
Stefanescu
Valerian Stan