The Ministry of Justice and the Department of Penitentiary Institutions initiated public consultations on a bill to provide medical services of a high quality in penitentiaries. A new subdivision will be created under the Department, but the doctors will not be subordinate to the prison administration, IPN reports.

“There is the presumption of good faith of the jail administration when presenting the medical data of prisoners, but the monitoring and inspection institutions from outside, including civil society, ask for a mechanism for verifying the information presented by the administration,” said Vladimir Cojocaru, senior specialist of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions. The new subdivision will be responsible for employing doctors and remunerating them and for the internal movement of doctors from one penitentiary to another.

If the doctors identify bodily injuries, signs of ill-treatment or torture on a detainee, they will be obliged to report the case directly to prosecutors, not to the jail head, as now. It is suggested integrating the medical services provided for detainees into the national health system and extending the range of medical services for prisoners guaranteed by the state. Special wards may be set up for detainees in public health institutions.