Places of detention
A division of the Defender visits every place where a person is deprived of liberty, without announcement, at times of its own choosing. A visit may not be refused in any case.
Article 255(1): the independent body of Article 47(4) is a division of the Defender.
Article 255(2): the division visits without announcement every place where a person is deprived of liberty, speaks with any detained person in private, examines every register, and publishes its reports under Article 228(4).
Article 255(3): a visit may in no case be refused, delayed or conditioned, and refusal is an offence.
Visits of the current period
| Place | Visits | Persons spoken with in private | Findings published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cortius, place of detention | 4 | 61 | Two persons held past the interval for judicial review. Released the same day. Register practice corrected. |
| Lindoma, place of detention | 5 | 88 | No finding of ill treatment. Two findings on the temperature of cells in February, remedied. |
| Sornorum, place of detention | 3 | 44 | Correspondence with the Defender opened by staff on two occasions. Practice stopped, and the persons responsible identified in the report. |
| Marendo, secure care institution | 3 | 27 | No finding. Access to the courts available and used. |
| Ferrista, police holding rooms | 7 | 39 | Records of hours held incomplete in three cases. Corrected, with a new register in use. |
Matters examined by the division
Every register, without exception: who is held, since when, on what order, when a judge last reviewed the deprivation of liberty, who came in and who went out. Article 228(1) puts execution of penalties under a judge who reviews detention at intervals fixed by organic law, and the register is where a failure of that review becomes visible.
Conversations are held in private and out of hearing, with any person requesting one and with persons selected by the division itself. Both routes are used at every visit.
The absolute prohibitions
Article 47(1): torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are prohibited.
Article 47(3): a statement obtained by such treatment is inadmissible in any proceeding, except in a proceeding against its author.
Article 42(2) places the prohibition beyond derogation, so no emergency, no majority and no finding of necessity reaches it.
Who administers a place of detention
The Constitution places places of detention under public establishments and forbids conferring their administration, or any part of it, upon another body under Article 163(3). Article 265(1)(n) makes void the conferral of such a function outside that provision. The public establishment administering a place of detention is accountable for every person held in it.
Correspondence with the division
A detained person may write, and the letter leaves unopened. Staff opened such correspondence twice at Sornorum, the practice was stopped, and the report names those responsible. A relative, a lawyer, a delegate or anyone else may also write, and a request for a private conversation at the next visit is enough.
No suspension is admitted of the right of a detained person to address the courts directly. That route remains available at all times, alongside the inspection the division conducts.