Country

Estonia

Detention issue

FRA research findings

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Legal instruments & key provisions

Legal instrument Key provision
Imprisonment ActPrisoners shall be permitted to receive at least one supervised visit (for up to 4 hours) per month from their family members and other (authorised) people. This applies also to detainees in solitary confinement. A short-term meeting could also be allowed via telecommunication (video-communication tools).
Imprisonment ActPrisoners (except for those in open prisons) are allowed to receive long-term visits (up to 24 hours without supervision) from their spouse, registered partner, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, child, grandchild, adoptive parent, adoptive child, step parent or foster parent, step child or foster child, brother or sister. Long-term visits from a cohabitee are allowed on the condition that they have common children or at least two years of cohabitation prior to commencement of serving the sentence.

NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS

Year Recommendation Report
2022The prison must immediately stop full strip-searches of children coming for visits. The prison should facilitate contact by convicted and remand prisoners with their family and children and, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, review the fee charged for long-term visits. [...] The prison should also enable secure taking of joint photographs for parents in prison and their children coming to the prison for a visit. Report details
2022The Ministry of Justice should prepare a draft legislative amendment to § 25(3) of the Imprisonment Act to remove from the law the ban on long-term visits for prisoners placed in a reception unit. Report details
2023Tallinn Prison did not allow prisoners to go on a prison leave to visit home if they did not have a workplace outside the prison at the moment. The Chancellor stressed that a prisoner cannot be denied a visit home merely because of temporary lack of a job. The Chancellor appealed to Tallinn Prison that a prisoner be given enough time to go home and that this time should be at least as long as a long-term visit in a closed prison. Unfortunately, in Tartu Prison, short-term visits with family and children usually take place in a room where a glass partition separates visitors from the prisoner. The prison has only one room where a prisoner can meet with their next of kin directly, but of course this one room is not enough for the whole prison. Problems have also been caused by the fee charged for using rooms for long-term visits. Unfortunately, this fee is not affordable for all families, so that families cannot afford long-term visits. Report details