Human Rights Action and Juventas today presented results of the report “Monitoring respect of human rights of detained and sentenced persons in the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions in Montenegro 2014-2015″ and project “Community oriented prisons – prevention of ill-treatment in prisons through reform of rehabilitation and re-socialization”, whose aim was the promotion of human rights, especially regarding the treatment of detainees and persons serving a prison sentence.

During the presentation of the report discussion especially developed on the assessment that the prison administration and Ministry of Justice did not effectively investigate and sanction within the institution  the incident in January 2015, when members of the prison police assaulted 13 inmates, three of whom were also exposed to torture as found by the Ombudsman. It was also noted the problem of prolonged fixation of several prisoners, and that the Prison administration did not inform the Ministry of Justice of all use of means of coercion, despite legal obligation, which coupled with the fact that the doctors too had not been informed about every such case. Conclusion of the monitoring team was that there are insufficient procedural guarantees to prevent abuse in custody and that the new Law on Execution of prison sentences, fines and security measures in this regard should be supplemented in accordance with the recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture Montenegro (CPT).

The summary of the report “Monitoring respect of human rights of detained and sentenced persons in the Institute for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions in Montenegro 2014-2015” is available here.