Human Rights Commissioner Maria Stylianou Lottides on Wednesday called for every prisoner to have a bed on which to sleep, and not just a mattress on the floor of their cell.
The recommendation was made as part of a report submitted following a complaint regarding the living conditions in Wing 1B of the central prison, where prisoners currently sleep on the floor.
The complaint had been made in May, with one prisoner’s lawyers saying that due to overcrowding on the wing, the prisoner was experiencing “inhumane treatment” and sharing a sleeping space with no less than 20 other people.
Wing 1B is where adult males convicted of sexual offences against minors are housed. It initially housed all sexual offenders, but this was narrowed down to those convicted of offences against minors due to a rapid increase in convictions for such crimes.
An on-site visit to the wing found that inmates were sleeping on mattresses on the floor of the ward’s gymnasium, which has been converted into a bedroom of sorts.
“This is obviously due to the indisputable fact that the number of prisoners in the central prison, particularly in Wing 1B, far exceeds what was foreseen, while overcrowding has been constantly on the increase in recent years,” Lottides said.
She said this fact has been noted in reports published by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which operates under the Council of Europe.
“However, this cannot be a sufficient justification for the degradation of living conditions at the central prison, especially when it results in what international standards determine to be the degrading treatment of prisoners,” she said.
She pointed out that the CPT has described as an “absolute principle” the idea that prisoners should not sleep on mattresses placed on the floor, but that mattresses be placed on a bedframe.
She added that the CPT has “repeatedly made recommendations to Council of Europe member states, including Cyprus, to ensure that all prisoners have a bed on which to sleep, and that only if this requirement is fulfilled can it be considered that prisoners are met with the minimum standards of decent treatment.
Additionally, she said, the fact that prisoners are sleeping on the floor because of overcrowding intertwines with another CPT recommendation: that countries deal with overcrowding by capping the number of prisoners and increasing their use of alternative measures.
In this regard, she pointed out that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has said that a non-negotiable condition for the dignified treatment of prisoners is a separate sleeping area wherein prisoners have at least three square metres of personal space.
If either of those conditions are not met, she said, the ECtHR will consider prisoners’ human rights to have been violated in accordance with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Article 3 pertains to the prohibition of torture, and states that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
It is also an absolute right, meaning it is unqualified and cannot be balanced against the rights and needs of other people or the greater public interest in the eyes of the court, and is also not referenced by Article 15 (2), which means there is no provision for derogation from the article, even in times of war or any other public emergency.
With this in mind, Lottides called for a re-evaluation of methods by which prisons can be decongested, and for a greater use of alternative methods of punishment, particularly for those who are to serve sentences of two years or less.
“However, in the interim period, measures must be taken to ensure decent living conditions for prisoners and in particular to ensure that prisoners are not forced to sleep on the floor,” she said, calling on both Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis and the central prison’s directorate to take action.
