Section URBAN STUDIES, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

FUNCTIONING OF LATVIAN DETENTION INSTITUTIONS

SAFETY SYSTEM IN CASE OF TECHNOGENIC DISASTER
THREAT
Lect. Mg. Mihails Urbans

Riga Technical University, Institute of Safety Labor and Civil Defense, Latvia

ABSTRACT
In both the world and Latvia, people who are serving sentences and are in places
of detention for the committed criminal offenses occupy a special place in society.
There are 12 places of imprisonment in Latvia where people who have committed
criminal offenses are serving punishment and Latvian statistics show that in 2017
there were 3,765 people in detention [1]. Most of the people in prisons are 30-35
years of age, they are potentially part of the economically active population. Latvian
society is interested that these people after having served their sentence in detention

study was carried out to identify what deficiencies exist in ensuring the safety of
detainees in detention places in case of a technogenic disaster outside the prison
area, whether the safety system established in Latvia ensures the human right to
safety while in detention. The article reviews the mechanism of technogenic safety
and civil protection based on the analysis of national legislation, which is necessary
to ensure a maximum security at detention places, as well as the provision of
necessary resources from the state. The security of prisoners in Latvia is based on
national laws and the Cabinet of Ministers regulations containing the security norms
and methods, of which use allows the responsible authorities to react quickly,
promptly and comprehensively to dangerous situations in external environment.
The outcome of the present study is a general review of the technogenic safety
system of Latvian detention institutions and identification of shortcomings, based
on a comprehensive analysis of Latvian legislation.
Key words: prisons, hazard, prisoner, civil protection, disasters.

INTRODUCTION
The objective is to identify what drawbacks exist in ensuring the safety of
detainees in the event of a technogenic disaster outside the prison area in Latvia.
The subject of the study is the review of regulatory enactments governing the safety.
This issue is topical in not only Latvia but also all over the world where there are
practically no studies on the safety mechanism in the event of emergency in
detention institutions. Indeed, only a handful of studies have focused on prisons and
prisoners in disasters and emergencies [9]. This study provides a possibility to
review the structure and regulation of the safety system of Latvian detention
facilities as well as to identify the drawbacks. The following study has been carried
out Disaster risk reduction and emergency management
It explores the exposure of

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prisons and identifies vulnerabilities and capacities of prisoners as well as the

related policies and practices for disaster risk reduction and emergency
management [2]. This study showed the topicality and importance of the issue in
the context of global natural and technogenic safety; it was concluded that the
deficiencies of the safety system were also applicable to other countries of the
world, including Latvia. Most of Latvian detention institutions are located close to
technogenic sites, such as railways and motor roads by which dangerous cargoes
are carried every day, and there may be also hazardous areas identified in the
vicinity of stationary high-risk objects; in total there are 69 such objects in Latvia,
some of them are located near places of imprisonment. The work of Latvian
detention institutions is strictly regulated and some of the documents have a
restricted access status, therefore in the course of this study the free accessible
regulatory enactments were summarized. Prisons and correctional facilities are like
small cities in that they provide food, shelter, health care and other basic needs, and
must be prepared for all types of emergencies, including natural disasters. Just as
cities must create emergency preparedness and response plans based on their
geography, prison officials must do the same. Those plans often involve the local
community [8].
PRISON AND GENERAL WORK ORGANIZATION IN
LATVIAN STATE DETENTION INSTITUTIONS
We start with the review of what means prison and for whom it is intended.

offences. Prisons are usually strictly regulated and tightly surveyed environments,
to which offenders are confined for varying lengths of time, and sometimes for life
Prisons are therefore places of exclusion at the margin of the society. They are
secluded territorial entities which gather those people who are banished from social
life for the crime they have committed. Imprisonment is therefore a spatial and
social form of punishment [5].
Since 2004 Latvia is a member state of the European Union (hereinafter - the
EU) and is bound by EU legislation. Article 2 of the European Convention on

convention is one of the most important documents stating that any person has the
right to life not depending on whether a person is in a place of imprisonment or not.
The basic Latvian document, which defines the basic structure of the state, is the
Satversme (Constitution) of the Republic of Latvia. The Satversme defines the
fundamental human rights, including the right to life, as well as stipulates that no
one may deprive or restrict freedom except in accordance with the law. Based on
the Satversme, the laws have been issued and one of the basic laws determining the
institutional system of the state administration subordinated to the Cabinet of
Ministers and the basic rules of the state administration is the law On the State
Administration Structure. Based on this law, the Prisons Administration Regulation
has been issued, which establishes the functions of the prison administration:
detention as a means of security and deprivation of liberty as a criminal penalty
execution. This regulation provides for a number of functions performed by the
prison authorities in order to ensure compliance with the regime, as well as
compliance with the rules and rights of prisoners, and the proper fulfillment of
duties. Separately, in order to ensure the operation of the Prisons Administration in

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compliance with the principles of legality and human rights, the Prisons
Administration Law was issued in 2003. The Prisons Administration Law states that
the Prisons Administration Office consists of: remand prisons, closed prisons, semi-
closed prisons, open prisons, correctional institutions for juveniles. All of these
detention places have their own conditions for keeping inmates, depending on
punishment imposed by the court, which depends on the degree of the committed

According to the aforementioned documents, it is strictly stated that a safety

system has been established in Latvia, which is responsible to care about human life
and health no matter where the person is located.
MECHANISM FOR OVERCOMING EMERGENCY
SITUATIONS IN PRISONS
A multilevel civil protection system has been established in Latvia, which
provides for care about residents in the event of a catastrophe or a threat thereof.

of Sciences: a citizen of Latvia or a person registered in the Office for Citizenship

and Migration Affairs of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Latvia, who has
a permanent residence registration in the Republic of Latvia and who has been
assigned an individual and unchanged personal identification number, which is
indicated in identity documents, or has received a permanent residence permit [7].
It should be noted that a resident is any natural person who is assigned a personal
identification number, thus a person who is in a detention place is also considered
a resident.
In 2016, the Civil Protection and Disaster Management Law came into force,
which aims to establish the legal and organizational principles of the civil protection
system operation and disaster management in order to maximally ensure the safety
and protection of people, environment, infrastructure and property (vugd.gov.lv).
The civil protection system includes a timely prediction of disaster threats, planning
and conducting the restoration measures, and providing the community with the
minimum essential needs in case of catastrophe or catastrophic hazard. The system
also defines the rights and tasks of the State, local governments, legal and natural
persons. The coordination of disaster management is based on the risk assessment.
Based on the risk assessment, sectoral ministries and local authorities, in
cooperation with other institutions, should identify preventive, preparative,
responsive and consequences mitigating measures, develop relevant documents,
and identify and plan resources for disaster management. It should be noted that
persons being in detention places are residents while the local government is
responsible for the evacuation of residents, this being a deficiency in the law since
the municipality has no right to evacuate the arrested persons because a special legal
regime is applied to them. Based on the above, the evacuation measures in detention
institutions should be ensured by the administration of these facilities. The Civil
Protection and Disaster Management Law provides for obligations of certain
entities to develop a civil protection plan for the facility, which includes the safety
and evacuation measures, but the mandatory requirement is not applicable to all
facilities in Latvia. Such obligation may be imposed by a sectoral ministry

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responsible for the order and safety of its subordinated facilities. At present time,
no such obligations are established for the prison administration.
on

regime requirements for detainees, as well as the standards to be ensured for

observance of human rights. In view of this, in the event of evacuation of a detention
institution, the prisoners should be placed only in such facilities where there is the
possibility of implementing certain regimes relating to places of detention, that is,
only in other prisons. Regarding the Civil Protection and Disaster Management
Law, the Prison Administration should take into account the requirements for
necessary planning and implementing the activity required for a continuous
operation of a state institution in the event of a disaster or catastrophe threat, which
primarily may be also applied to cases associated with the implementation of
evacuation measures in a place of detention. In addition, the Cabinet of Ministers

responsible person shall ensure the development of a fire safety manual for a public
facility and the fire safety manual is a set of fire safety requirements corresponding
to the purpose of use of the public facility. These regulations provide to define an
action in the fire safety manual for the case of fire, including a procedure for
evacuation of people. Notwithstanding that the fire safety manual only applies to
the case of a fire, the essence of its implementation is also applicable to other types
of disasters or to cases where the evacuation from a facility is to be carried out and
the accommodation places are provided to be other detention places in Latvia, with
which the cooperation agreements should be concluded.
With regard to the use of transport in the event of evacuation, the prison
administration shall apply the same requirements as those implemented in the

transportation and guarding of the convicted or arrested person during the receipt
of a health service at a medical treatment institution outside the detention

patient from a prison to a hospital outside its territory. The regulation establishes
that the transportation and security of a prisoner is a package of measures taken by
an official to prevent a prisoner from attempting to make a jailbreak or commit an
action that endangers the safety of the official, the prisoner himself or another
person, to ensure the protection of the official and the prisoner against unlawful
actions of other person. The transfer procedure is very long lasting since there are
provided many measures to be taken by an official before moving. Prior to the
transfer of a prisoner, an official of the same gender carries out a complete

items, articles or substances that are prohibited from being brought in, used or held
in the detention place and that can be used for attack, for causing personal injury to
themselves or another persons or for another unlawful activity. Prior to the search,
the prison officer invites the prisoner to voluntarily hand in the prohibited items.
When a prohibited item is found during the search, the official shall prepare a report

handed over to the duty assistant governor of prison (hereinafter referred to as the
duty assistant). This procedure due to lack of time may only be valid for everyday

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individual events where there is no need to transport large numbers of detainees
who may be potentially at risk in the event of a technogenic disaster. The system
established in the country for the transfer of prisoners does provide the detention
institutions with the transport for the transfer of all detainees since the probability
of evacuating all of them together is not considered. The prisoner is transported by
ore

vehicle. When analyzing the statistics, it is ascertained that very few such special
vehicles are at disposal of detention institutions, average two at each detention
institution, where up to 10 people can be accommodated.
As reviewed above, the evacuation of prisoners is a very time-consuming issue
to comply with all requirements of law and the detention institutions are not
provided with a specialized transport for the transfer of all detainees.
Larger municipalities in Latvia often have their own bus fleets for everyday
carriage of passengers, which are not intended to carry the prisoners since it would
not meet the requirements of the aforementioned system. As a result, the
municipality has no possibilities to provide a specialized transport for carriage of
prisoners in the event of a technogenic disaster, as well as the municipality should
first take care of and evacuate its own declared residents who are not in the detention
places. By now, no Latvian municipality is capable with its own resources to move
all the residents from the endangered place to the evacuation place, therefore the
prison administration should search for resources elsewhere. Within the framework
of the Civil Protection and Disaster Management Law, the cooperation between the
prison and the local government is severely restricted by the requirements of laws
and the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations. In cases that relate to the provision of
transport in case of evacuation, the detention institutions should plan the evacuation
with their own forces. The exclusion may only apply to the open prisons as well as
to the correctional institutions for juveniles where less dangerous prisoners are
serving their sentence. The prison administration should assess whether evacuation
of prisoners will meet all requirements of the special regime and a sufficient security
will be guaranteed if services of the public transport will be used, and whether it
will not create additional risks of security and order.

ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOGENIC THREAT TO A

DETENTION INSTITUTION
The Jelgava Prison is located about 200 meters from Jelgava Railway Station.
The Jelgava railway station is designated as a national scale high-risk facility
(hereinafter referred to as HRF). It was historically allowed and turned out so that
this detention place is close to this type of HRF; in the event of an accident with a
discharge of ammonia from 60-ton railway tank-car at the HRF, of which situation
diagram is shown in Figure No.1, it is found that with the south-east wind direction
the detention place will be affected together with 321 [6] prisoners. This HRF is
included in the State and Jelgava Municipality civil protection plans since the
accident could affect residents outside the territory of the facility. Adverse
consequences of threat to Jelgava railway station can be defined according to the

disaster in Hungary in 2010. In accordance with requirements of this directive, the

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HRF management shall develop a safety report and a civil protection plan. These
documents shall identify the probabilistic scenarios and necessary state and
municipal resources to overcome this accident. In Latvia, the legislator has not
determined the criteria for calculation of risk areas; usually the HRF management
itself chooses and uses one of methodologies most recognized in the world, most
often the US-developed programme ALOHA or Dutch Coloured Books.
The lives of inmates in any prison are dependent on the ability of the prison
administration to take emergency measures properly and respond promptly to an
emergency, as the incarcerated persons as well as other state prisoners are not
allowed to move freely and have no free access to the personal and collective
protective equipment, which would need to be used in the event of such a threat.
This situation is aggravated also by that in prisons there may be persons who have
poor physical and psychological health and need extra time to be evacuated.
Efficient operation of the evacuation systems is also affected by more security
systems, such as doors, bars, checkpoints, etc.
In all Latvia prisons, a fire safety manual has been developed as provided by

which according the prison management shall plan the evacuation procedure with
involvement of all officials and provision of assistance. The manual provides
actions for quick evacuation of prisoners, what doors to open, which stairs should
be used. The manual can work efficiently on condition of safe presence in the
territory of the detainment institution since the evacuation is intended to place the
prisoners over the territory but in case of chemical pollution the action algorithm is
different because it is more secure to remain inside the premises using personal
protective equipment or collective means of protection sealed premises, such as a
bombshelter, where local ventilation systems are built or efficient air filtration is
provided. If such system is not built, then the accepted practice is to disable
ventilation devices, to seal the windows and doors, thus maximally preventing the
noxious air from flowing into the premises. Examining these options, it should be
noted that the prison must have a self-contained safety system designed to provide
a high level of safety in the event of a technogenic accident, since evacuation by
buses to another detention place in such cases is very risky as usually this kind of
accident can be localized rather quickly but the evacuation will take more time than
finding a safe place inside the prison. Examples in New Zealand and elsewhere
indicate that prisoners can play a key role before, during and after disaster, including
for providing health care and first aid support, firefighting, clearing debris, fund
raising post disaster and offering informal counselling to other inmates [4] [8].
Compared to experience of other countries, prisoners in Latvia are in a helpless state
although they also can be trained how to act in case of emergency situation.
Prisoners are, however, not helpless when facing natural and other hazards. They
also possess capacities or intrinsic knowledge, skills and resources used to deal with
both hazards and disasters [3]. For most informants, prisoners are valuable
resources that can be mobilized in time of disaster and emergency. DoC staff
emphasize that involving prisoners in DRR and emergency management provides
them with the opportunity to gain a small salary as well as relevant skills useful for
their rehabilitation [2].

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Figure 1. Diagram of accident

CONCLUSIONS
In the result of the study it was found that in case of technogenic disaster in
proximity of a detention institution in Latvia the everyday regime would be affected
and the personal of this institution would be threatened as well as the prisoners. A
fire safety manual should be developed for a detention institution in Latvia, which
is intended for evacuation of personnel and prisoners of the detention institution
when there is no sufficient transport means for carriage of these persons. The
transportation procedure in case of technogenic disaster is tine consuming since the
same action is provided as for people transportation to a hospital in more stages. No
individual procedure is developed for evacuation in case of external threat.
Participation of prisoners in case of disaster is restricted since no special training is
carried out where the prisoners could help the others to be evacuated faster, for
example, help the inmates with musculoskeletal disorders. The Prison
Administration is not provided with personal or collective protective equipment that
could be used in case of chemical contamination thus avoiding the need to evacuate
the prisoners immediately but making possible to wait for transport in safe
conditions. The established civil protection and disaster management system as well
as laws regulating the system of detention institutions need to be amended in order
the detention institutions could use transport unaccommodated for the special
regime.

REFERENCES
[1] Centrala statistikas parvalde.
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dc3d-4f96-9d42-b9fda82ebad0;
[2] Gaillard J.C., Disaster Risk Reduction And Emergency Management in
Prison: A scoping study from New Zealand. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis
Management. Volume 25, Issue 4. 2017, pp. 376-381;

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[3] Gaillard J.C., Navizet, F. Prisons, prisoners and disaster. International

Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Volume 1(1), 2012, pp. 33 43;
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http://termini.lza.lv/term.php?term=Latvijas%20iedz%C4%ABvot%C4%81js&lis
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