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Centre
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Human Rights in the World
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Jasinska v. Poland (application no. 28326/05)
03.06.2010
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Principal facts
R. Ch. was convicted a number of times for theft, including one charge of aggravated theft. On 18 March 2002 he began serving a nine-year sentence in Krasnystaw Prison. He consulted doctors about thirty times and was prescribed psychotropic drugs on a number of occasions, the last one being on 25 August 2004 when he consulted a psychiatrist who made the following observations: “negative frame of mind, general malaise, bouts of depression, headaches”.
On 28 August 2004 R. Ch. was taken to hospital by ambulance suffering from convulsions and shaking. He admitted having swallowed psychotropic tablets that had been prescribed by one of the consultant psychiatrists at the prison. He started shaking again and after an unsuccessful attempt to resuscitate him he died during the early hours of the morning.
A court-ordered expert report of 29 May 2002 had concluded that R. Ch. was not suffering from a serious mental illness and that his condition did not require him to be hospitalised outside prison, but had pointed out nonetheless that he had stated that he had previously slit his veins and attempted to poison himself with medicines. The investigation carried out after the young man had committed suicide confirmed that he had shown signs of mild mental deficiency, phobia and mild injuries to his central nervous system.
Decision of the Court
The prison authorities had been informed of the deterioration in R. Ch.’s health and should legitimately have considered him as a suicide risk rather than simply renewing his medical prescriptions. R. Ch.’s condition had been diagnosed while he was a child and confirmed subsequently. Moreover, the expert report of 29 May 2002 had clearly indicated that he had mentioned a previous attempt to commit suicide. His continuing bouts of depression had also been referred to during the consultation of 25 August 2004, three days before he committed suicide.
The Court noted a clear deficiency in a system that had allowed a first-time prisoner, who was mentally fragile and whose state of health had deteriorated, to gather a lethal dose of drugs without the knowledge of the medical staff responsible for supervising the ingestion of his medicine, and to subsequently commit suicide. It pointed out that the authorities’ responsibility was not confined to prescribing medicines, but also consisted in ensuring that they were properly taken, in particular in the case of mentally disturbed prisoners.
As the authorities had failed to comply with their obligation to protect the life of the applicant’s grandson, the Court held that there had been a violation of Article 2.
Given that the applicant’s complaint under Article 3 was based on the same facts as the complaint under Article 2, the Court did not consider it necessary to examine it.
Under Article 41 (just satisfaction), the Court held that Poland had to pay the applicant 16,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 850 for costs and expenses.
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