Controversial resocialisation centre loses accreditation

Čistý Deň will be closed down and its clients moved to other facilities.

Čistý DeňČistý Deň (Source: SME)

The Čistý Deň resocialisation centre in Galanta (Trnava Region) will be closed nearly one year after the media reported a scandal concerning the abuse of one of its clients.

The Labour Ministry’s accreditation committee said on August 23 that the life, health and development of its clients may be in danger. Though it issued the same statement a year ago, Labour Minister Ján Richter (Smer) did not see a reason to scrap the accreditation.

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This time, however, he said he would dismiss the accreditation. He had to wait for the committee’s statement, though, the Sme daily reported.

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Read also: Minister Richter to withdraw Čistý Deň accreditation Read more 

The minister changed his opinion about the resocialisation centre after the Trenčín-based investigator laid charges against its former employee for sexual abuse.

“This information significantly impacts the ministry’s decision on accreditation,” said its spokesperson Veronika Husárová, as quoted by Sme.

The committee also took into consideration the fact that the number of escapes of children placed at Čistý Deň was much higher than in other facilities, and also the way the centre’s management dealt with the scandal.

Clients to be moved

The Labour Ministry will now prepare a document confirming its decision to dismiss the accreditation and will announce it to the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family. It will subsequently take steps to relocate the clients to other resocialisation facilities, Sme wrote.

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The clients whose stay in the centre was ordered by the courts will have to wait for the courts to decide on the change of the facility. The voluntary clients need to make a deal with new facilities over whether they will take them or not, according to Sme.

“The ministry was already prepared for this alternative in September 2016,” Husárová told the daily.

Media pressure?

Psychologist Katarína Hatráková, former employee of the labour office who carried out an inspection at Čistý Deň, considers the decision to scrap the accreditation a thought-out media strategy. When she pointed to the problems at the facility, her superiors told her not to deal with it. She even had to change some reports.

“Scrapping the accreditation is a result of media pressure,” Hatráková told Sme.

Also Zuzana Tománková Miková, who represents Čistý Deň, considers the recent decision a result of media pressure. Though the suspicions of sexual abuse are a serious matter, it should be solved as part of a criminal investigation, not by taking away the accreditation, she told Sme.

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