The Aug. 10 report also singled out social workers who often do not give patients the right to refuse care or give informed consent.

Ombusman Otakar Motejl detailed more than 80 human rights violations his office witnessed during a six-month investigation of the country's prison cells, foreigners' detention facilities and state homes for the chronically ill throughout the first half of this year.

The violations range in seriousness from failing to provide prisoners with toilet paper to failing to provide them with access to an attorney.

The report is already having an effect: The Interior Ministry is changing the way it notifies prisoners and foreign detainees of their rights and vows to improve holding cells. Interior and Health ministry officials promise further changes.

If ministries fail to adequately address charges leveled in the report and make the recommended changes, the ombudsman, or public advocate, can ask the supreme state attorney to file charges in the public interest.

Motejl examined hundreds of facilities, including ones that have been criticized in the past by anti-torture committees of both the Council of Europe and the United Nations, as well as several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

He says he found no evidence of cruel treatment. "However, due to the lack of knowledge of police officers, they sometimes act in a way that more or less fails to respect human dignity and could fulfill the definition of maltreatment," he said.

Several NGOs were quick to agree with the report.

"The problems mentioned in the ombudsman's report are indeed similar to what we have monitored, be it a lack of cell equipment and hygiene, incorrect treatment or an insufficient amount of information offered to the detained about their rights," said Pavel Bílek, deputy director of the Czech Helsinki Committee, which monitors human rights.

Seeking an explanation

Motejl has asked police to explain the practice of handcuffing detainees to handrails — something witnessed at eight facilities. In at least one instance, officers had binding straps used to tie prisoners to beds.

Police Presidium spokesman Pavel Hanták defended officers' right to bind detainees wherever and whenever they deem necessary.

"The law says it can only be used until the detained stops his or her attempts to damage himself or another person," he said. "Since some people begin to behave after being placed in the cell, it would seem right to have the option."

Officers often handcuff prisoners to handrails instead of pipes or radiators to reduce the chance of injury, Hanták said.

In three cases during the investigation, police were caught denying detainees the ability to alert family of their arrest.

"We cannot agree with what we saw in one case, where police claimed a detainee had no right to see his lawyer until he was charged," Motejl said.

Hanták said police now give detailed information to detainees about their rights, including access to an attorney.

Foreigners' detention centers came under fire in the report for failing to inform detainees' countries about their arrests and stealing money and personal belongings. In one such facility, prisoners complained that there was only one pot for boiling water for 60 people.

The report will bring significant changes to the way foreigners are detained, Hanták acknowledged, including ensuring that a foreigner's country is notified about any arrest.

The report also leveled criticism against state homes for the chronically ill, including the claim that patients were often not given the right to refuse treatment. "The position of social worker is practically nonexistent," the report read. "This is unacceptable."

The Health Ministry shrugged off much of the criticism in the report.

"After reading the report, we can say that we did not find it speaking of any errors in providing health care at the facilities," says Health Ministry spokesman Václav Šebor.

Some of the improvements suggested in the report were part of a draft healthcare bill that recently failed to pass in the Chamber, he added, but could not give specific examples. "It's not clear to me what sort of further measures the Health Ministry could come up with."

Changing office

The Ombudsman's Office has only been in existence since 2000, and Motejl has been the country's only ombudsman.

Recently, the office found fault with the police intervention at the CzechTek techno music festival in Mlýnec, west Bohemia, in 2005, and criticized the Health Ministry for the unlawful forced sterilization of more than 50 Romany women.

Motejl consistently ranks in opinion polls as one of the three most trusted public officials in the country. But his six-year term expires at the end of the year, and the state will have to decide whether to reinstate him or name another ombudsman.

Regardless of his fate, Motejl has boosted the credibility of the office in the eyes of skeptical politicians.

President Václav Klaus was once vehemently opposed to the Ombudsman's Office. He has since warmed to the agency, signing a law in September that extends its powers to include oversight of prisons, asylum centers and hospitals.