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The Helsinki Committee has been implementing the
project named “Prison Reform and Forensic Psychiatry” thanks to the
assistance of the Royal Netherlands Embassy, Belgrade.
The project team has paid fact-finding missions to
the institutions catering for prisoners sentenced with mandatory
psychiatric treatment so as to, for the first time in Serbia, access
the situation of forensic departments, general healthcare provided
to persons deprived of their liberty, their psychiatric treatment
and care, and psycho-social rehabilitation programs, as well as to
obtain insight into legal status of forensic patients and the
exercise of their rights.
The monitoring has been conducted in cooperation
with the Ministry of Healthcare and institutional managements, and
the Ministry of Justice, more precisely the Central Prison
Administration. The team in one-day visits to the said institutions
included the Committee’s lawyers, Jelena Mirkov and Ljiljana
Palibrk, and experts – Professor Vladimir Jovic, psychiatrist, and
Professor Djordje Alempejevic, forensic pathologist.
The team toured the Special Prison Hospital in
Belgrade, and special psychiatric hospitals in Gornja Toponica,
Vrsac and Novi Knezevac.
Special Prison Hospital in Belgrade is among the
institutions catering for persons under one of the three legally
defined security measures – the measure of mandatory psychiatric
treatment, and mandatory treatments for alcoholism and drug abuse.
Under the Penal Code, the Hospital is the priority institution
accommodating prisoners under security measures. The law provides
that such person may be allocated to some other institution as well
– in Serbia, this includes the institutions in Vrsac, Gornja
Toponica and Novi Knezevac, though not specified in any of the law’s
provisions.
The Hospital accommodates not only prisoners
punished for crime and under security measures, but also persons
punished with misdemeanor under security measures, prisoners
awaiting trial under psychiatric observation, and detainees
diagnosed with some psychiatric disorder. In other words, though
prioritized under the Penal Law, the Hospital is not a specialized
institution for prisoners sentenced with the measure of obligatory
psychiatric treatment. Though planned to accommodate 400 patients,
the Hospital often has to cater for more than 500 persons. At the
time of its visit the team found 458 patients on its premises. Out
of this number, 300 patients are accommodated here throughout the
duration of their sentence. According to institutional personnel, as
many as 20 percent of them could be released immediately should
social and probation systems be capable of ensuring them normal
lives in the outside community and with community support. The
information about many patients on welfare have to be kept in the
institution for a lifetime is more than dramatic. The Hospital also
accommodates juveniles despite the fact that it has no special
department for them.
Special Psychiatric Hospital in Gornja Toponica
caters for the same category of patients. Out of the total of 650
patients, are forensic patients. The same as in the Special Prison
Hospital, about 20 percent of them could be released immediately
could the system ensure them adequate living and treatment in the
outside community. For its part, however, this hospital provides
psychiatric treatment to as many as 80 patients punished with this
mandatory measure. According to the statistics, 56 patients are
sentenced for serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder, rape
or family violence.
Special Psychiatric Hospital in Vrsac accommodates
forensic patients in several of its departments but also has a
special forensic department. At the time of its visit the team found
103 patients on the premises. Many forensic patients are on welfare
and no longer under the measure of obligatory psychiatric treatment:
they stay in hospital for having nowhere else to go. The same as in
other hospital catering for forensic patients, the latter are not
categorized into either high-security, semi-open or open wards.
Special Psychiatric Hospital in Novi Knezevac does
not have a separate forensic department but accommodates forensic
patients nevertheless. They are allocated to three wards depending
on their diagnoses. At the time of its visit the team found 21
forensic patients on the hospital premises. The hospital also
provides outpatient treatment. The management has required annulment
of mandatory treatment for 50 percent of its forensic patients. Only
one case has been turned down by a relevant court of law.
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