International standards on ensuring the rights of prisoners with physical and mental disabilities

URL: https://dspace.academy.police.md/international-standards-on-ensuring-the-rights-of-prisoners-with-physical-and-mental-disabilities/

Data: 2025

According to the authors, providing prisoners with physical and mental disabilities with adequate treatment and adequate medical care is of particular importance to ensure the health and safety of sick prisoners and of all others. Thus, they must be provided with the minimum security necessary to ensure their safe detention. Also, when assigning prisoners with disabilities, the risk of ill-treatment by other prisoners should be taken into account in order to ensure their protection. Therefore, this category of convicts requires a special approach when interacting with them. The problem is that prison officials are not always psychologically prepared to solve these complex professional problems. In this challenging context, prison systems must develop and implement effective strategies to protect prisoners with mental and behavioral disabilities. It is essential to adopt a multidisciplinary approach, which includes continuous training of custody staff in the field of mental health and disabilities, improving their access to specialized mental health support and services, as well as implementing robust abuse reporting mechanisms designed to protect victims of violence.