While in prison, you must be provided with clothes and bedding appropriate for the season. This is important to keep you healthy and to ensure a socially acceptable appearance.
Therefore, the prison administration must ensure that you have at least the following minimum items:
The prison administration must ensure that you have proper clothing and shoes. The prison administration must provide them. A director of the prison may allow you to use your own clothes and shoes if they are hygienically sound. In that case, you must ensure that they are changed regularly at your own expense.
Appropriate clothing
Your clothing must be appropriate. This means that it must fulfil two basic functions:
- it has to be suitable for the climate
Therefore, you must be given clothing which protects your health - keeps you warm in winter and is light enough for a hot summer.
- the clothing must ensure a socially acceptable appearance
The provided clothes don’t have to be new, but they should be of an appropriate size and should not be dirty or overly worn.
Type of clothing
According to Slovak law, the clothing that you are provided must be in line with the specified patterns and standards. Specially designated clothing shall be used during the execution of the disciplinary punishments of placement in a closed ward or during solitary confinement. However, no provided uniform may be degrading or humiliating for convicted person.
When you are allowed to leave the prison or when you are taken outside, you should be allowed to wear your own clothing.
Cleanliness
You should have the opportunity to keep your clothes clean. If you are allowed to use your own clothes, you have the option of securing an exchange or washing at your own expense. According to the Rules of Prison Sentence Execution, the underwear provided by prison must be changed at least once a week. Other parts of clothing are changed as necessary.
You must have a separate bed with sufficient and appropriate bedding. This means you must have all the items that a person needs for sleeping. According to Slovak law you must be given a mattress, pillow, blanket, pillowcase and sheet.
The bedding must be:
- appropriate for the climate
- clean when issued
- kept in good order
- changed at least once every two weeks
At your request, the prison can allow option to wash your clothes and bed sheets at your expense.
Prohibition against inhumane or degrading treatment
If you don’t have any bedding or clothes, or if they are inappropriate, this might lead to a violation of the prohibition against inhuman or degrading treatment. However, the effect that such a situation leaves on your physical and mental condition must reach a certain minimum level of severity. Minor deviations from the norm will not necessarily result in a human rights violation.
example If you were not given a blanket or a pillow for a month, it would most probably result in a violation of your rights. However, if you didn’t have a pillowcase on your pillow for a couple of days, most likely this would not be a violation of your rights.
Read more about how to evaluate whether your rights have been violated.
How to complain
If you believe that your rights have been violated, you should complain to the prison administration. Read more about how to complain.