Details
Legal instruments & key provisions
| Legal instrument | Key provision |
|---|---|
| Imprisonment Act (vankeuslaki/fängelselag) | Detainees must not be discriminated against, without an acceptable reason, on grounds such as their origin, nationality, language or religion. When arriving to prison or the police facility, detainees shall, without delay, be informed about their rights and obligations and the conditions in the facility. The information shall be available in the most commonly used languages in accordance with the needs of the detainees in the facility. In addition, foreign detainees shall be informed of their possibilities to contact the diplomatic mission of their country. |
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM RECOMMENDATIONS
| Year | Recommendation | Report |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | The Deputy-Ombudsman considered that attention should be paid to access to information in prison, especially when prisoners arrive. The prison’s rules of procedure and guidebook for new prisoners had only been translated into English and Russian. However, many of the foreign prisoners do not speak English at all or only poorly. Interviews with foreign prisoners revealed that interpretation and translation services in general were used little at the prison. It did not seem appropriate that prisoners had to use a fellow prisoner to help with interpreting or finding out answers in Finnish. | Report details |