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Poland

Capital city — Warsaw

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Panorama

Contact with the outside world

Visitation rights

All prisoners have the right to receive visits

yes

Individuals placed in solitary confinement for serious disciplinary misconduct are not allowed to receive visits.
Untried prisoners have limited rights to visits, which must be authorised by a judge. The visiting room is equipped with a plexiglass window to separate inmates and visitors.

Prisoners with the “N” classification (high risk) are limited to two monthly visits for one hour each. The CPT recommends at least one hour per week for all inmates1.
Some inmates signalled to a CPT delegation their inability to visit incarcerated relatives in different blocks of the same institution.

  1. European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, “Report to the Polish Government on the visit to Poland from 11 to 22 May 2017”, 2018, p.40. ↩

  • The CPT notes that new arrivals in remand detention continue to be subjected to restrictions on visits and telephone calls, often during their first month, but sometimes for up to two or three months. Incarcerated individuals on remand must request authorisation from a prosecutor or judge for each visit. It can take up to two weeks to receive a response.

    i
    22/02/2024
    / CPT, “Report to the Polish Government on the visit to Poland carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment from 21 March to 1 April 2022”, p. 28.

Prison governors grant convicts permission for visits. In the case of untried prisoners, these permissions are subject to the approval of the court or the prosecutor. Additional visits are sometimes granted.

Visit permits are granted

-

No complaints related to obtaining visiting rights have been reported. The administration does not allow for the possibility of reserving a visiting room. Visitors sometimes wait many hours before reaching their loved one.

People eligible to visit

family and friends

Visitors must receive special authorisation to visit a non-relative.

Visits last one hour.
Their frequency varies depending on the type of establishment:

  • minimum-security establishment – no visiting limits
  • medium-security establishment – three visits per month, which the prison governor has the right to suspend
  • maximum-security establishments – two visits per month, which the prison governor has the right to suspend

Prisoners under the age of 21 or parents of young children have the right to an additional visit.
Prisoners with “N” classification speak to their family and friends using an interphone. The conversations are monitored.
Longer or unsupervised visits may be granted as a reward, but not all prison establishments have adequate facilities1.

Remand prisoners must obtain permission from the prison authority to receive visits and make telephone calls. They may receive at least one visit a month from the “nearest person” 2.

Visits are not supervised in open prisons.

The Biala Podlaska prison does not guarantee any privacy to foreigners during visits (glass partition, presence of a guard in the hallway, video surveillance). Prison management do not have the authority to implement foreigners’ rights, making it difficult to obtain permission for visits.

  1. European Prison Observatory, “Prison conditions in Poland”, 2013, p.23. ↩

  2. Commissioner for human rights, Human rights in places of detention. How Poland in implementing into practice the recommendations of the international bodies for the prevention of torture (CPT and SPT), 2022, p. 57 ↩

Prisoners and visitors can meet without physical barriers

yes

Prisoners are allowed to receive visits from their children or minor relatives

yes, equipped areas are provided

Conjugal visits are allowed

yes

Required conditions for conjugal visits

no information

There are no specific indications about the conditions required to be allowed conjugal visits. Conjugal visits are considered “rewards” that can be granted to a prisoner demonstrating good behaviour. The decision is made by the prison governor.

Prisoners are entitled to two conjugal visits per month, each lasting 60 minutes. In a semi-open prison, prisoners can receive three visits per month, which can be accumulated with the prison director’s agreement. Conjugal visits take place in an unsupervised room.

Visitors are allowed to bring food, up to 5 kilogrammes.

No legal provisions define the maximum distance between the prison institution and the place of residence of the inmate. In practice, the prison administration makes an effort to place inmates in an institution close to their residence. This is especially true for inmates with young children.

Correspondence

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail

yes

The prison administration helps inmates without sufficient resources send correspondence, pursuant to Paragraph 18, Chapter 5 of the regulations of the Ministry of Justice.

Mail exchanged is subject to control

yes

Correspondence is systematically subjected to censorship in closed establishments. This practice sometimes extends to semi-open and open establishments.1

  1. Paulina Perska-Gradowska et Piotr Stępniak, “Le système pénitentiaire polonais”, avril 2024, p. 7 (in French). ↩

Prisoners are allowed to exchange mail in sealed envelopes

yes

Confidentiality is guaranteed for correspondence with the Commissioner for Human Rights and lawyers.

Prisoners are allowed to receive parcels

yes

Prisoners may receive one food package per month. They may not amass more than six kilogrammes of food or more than eight litres of liquid products in their cells (Paragraph 13, Chapter 4 of the regulations of the Ministry of Justice).
Packages of clothing, bedding, shoes, hygiene products and other objects meant for personal use are subject to the authorisation of the prison governor.
In 2016, the Commissioner for Human Rights noticed irregularities in the distribution of packages.

E-mail exchange is possible

no

Phone calls

Prisoners are allowed to make external phone calls

yes

Prisoners can use, at their own expense, pay telephones on the days and at the times set by the internal regulations. Individuals placed in pre-trial detention have access to a telephone solely with the permission of the authority in charge of their case file and only to communicate with their defence lawyer or solicitor and, in justified cases, with a loved one. The daily authorised conversation time may not exceed five minutes (except conversations with the judicial police and the investigating court, judicial bodies, regional government, mediator, the Children’s Ombudsman, etc.)1. The right to make telephone calls may be revoked as a disciplinary sanction2.

Weekday telephone calls are handled between 4pm and 9pm in juvenile facilities, and on Sundays and public holidays without restriction. There are no restrictions on incoming telephone calls for minors entering or undergoing medical treatment.

In juvenile facilities, prisoners could make phone calls on weekdays between 4 pm and 9 pm and at any time on Sundays and public holidays. Inbound phone calls for incoming juvenile prisoners or those undergoing medical care were unrestricted. Juvenile prisoners could also make phone calls (paid for by the prison) for 5 minutes per day (or more if the prisoner has been given a reward, which is not difficult to obtain according to juvenile prisoner reports). Phone calls would not monitored by prison staff. Juveniles who had the right to use a computer and the Internet (given either as a privilege or reward) could contact family members and close friends using Skype.3

An amendment to the Penal Enforcement Code dated 5 August 2022 stipulates that prisoners have the right to at least one phone call per week to their solicitor. In practice, the prison service limits calls to this legal minimum, says the president of the Polish bar association, Przemyslaw Rosati.

The amendments to the Penal Enforcement Code entered into effect on 17 September 2022. They guarantee prisoners a minimum of one ten-minute phone call per week to talk to their families or solicitors.

  1. Polish prison administration, « 2017 Prisoner Guide », p. 4. ↩

  2. European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, “Report to the Polish Government on the visit to Poland from 11 to 22 May 2017”, 2018, p. 39. ↩

  3. Commissioner for human rights, Human rights in places of detention. How Poland in implementing into practice the recommendations of the international bodies for the prevention of torture (CPT and SPT), 2022, p. 71 ↩

The phones are located

in the corridors

The cost of phone calls is in line with market prices

no

The prices vary depending on the company providing the service. The Commissioner for Human Rights received a considerable number of complaints regarding the high prices of telephone calls in some establishments. The system of billing the person receiving the call is an issue.

Phones calls are wire tapped

yes

The use of cell phones is authorised

no

Prisoners have access to video calls with external contacts

yes

Inmates, especially foreign ones, may communicate by Internet and videoconference with their family and friends.