If you believe that your human rights have been violated while you are in prison, you may submit a complaint about such violation. It is important for preventing an ongoing violation, preventing a future one or for obtaining compensation.
Read more about the following most common types of complaints:
If you believe that the conditions in a prison violated your rights, you can complain about this to the head of the prison or to the prosecutor who supervises the legality in places where personal freedom is restricted. The second option is not conditioned by exhaustion of the first. You may contact directly the prosecutor. However, some conditions may depend on objective possibilities or some organisational changes of the prison. Therefore, you may get faster improvement of conditions you complain about if you address your complaint to the head of the prison.
Your complaint according to the Act on the Prison and Judicial Guard Corps must not cause you any harm or any revenge of the prison guards or the head of the prison.
The investigation finds out the true state of affairs and evaluate compliance with the law, including regulations on conditions in the prison. If it is found that the complaint is justified and that the law has been violated, corrective measures must be taken and the reasons for the situation must also be described.
You have the right to receive a written response to your complaint within 30 working days, if it is not complex or hard to investigate due to some objective reasons. In such a case the term for response may be prolonged for next 30 working days.
Appeal
If you are not satisfied with the written response of the prison, you can appeal it within 15 days to the Directorial-General of the Prison and Judicial Guard Corps and request following investigation of your complaint. Its review shall take not more than 30 days.
The Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic controls and monitors the manner in which a complaint of a person in a prison is investigated. You may write a complaint directly to the Ministry, if neither the head of the prison nor the Directorate-General accept your complaint and conditions are not changed.
If it is not possible to seek improvement of your conditions within the prison, you can turn to national (and later also to international) bodies that monitor conditions in places with restrictions on personal freedom.
The procedure of the Prison and Judicial Guard Corps or Ministry of Justice in handling complaints is not reviewable by the court.
The most important of national authorities is the Public Prosecutor's Office, which oversees the legality of conditions in places of restriction of personal freedom. In this regard, it is possible for a sentenced person to file a complaint about the conditions in a prison with the locally competent regional prosecutor's office, whose prosecutors are authorized to enter prison, communicate with the complainant and investigate the actual conditions in a prison. The written communication with the Public Prosecutor`s Office must not be supervised by the prison. Each prison must have a box for complaints addressed to the prosecutor's office in a place accessible to detainees. Only the prosecutor opens this mailbox.
The law does not stipulate deadlines or a precise procedural rules for performing this supervision.
The treatment of persons deprived of their personal liberty may also be the subject of a complaint addressed to the Office of the Public Defender of Rights. The Ombudsperson is entitled to visit facilities where personal liberty is restricted and to act in order to investigate the treatment of persons in custody, to ascertain the state of affairs and to recommend remedial action to the competent authorities. The complaint should describe as concretely as possible the facts which, in your opinion, infringed your rights while serving a prison sentence.
The Act on the Public Defender of Rights does not provide time limits for the Public Defender of Rights to process complaints. The speed of the investigation depends on the amount of information provided, the urgency and the complexity of the matter. In order for your complaint to be assessed urgently, it is necessary to state specific facts and actions that lead to an interference with your rights. The correspondence with the Ombudsperson must not be supervised by the prison.
It may happen that neither the prosecutor’s office, not the Directorial-General of the Prison and Judicial Guard Corps nor the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic identify a violation of your rights. In such a case, it is necessary to seek redress in the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic by a constitutional complaint. If it identifies an infringement of your rights, it will in principle award financial compensation.
The prison staff and the head of the prison are responsible for conditions and good order in prison. Therefore, if other inmates have violated your rights, you should alert the prison staff or the head of the prison.
Read more about how to complain about crimes committed by fellow inmates.