54 THE GREEK OMBUDSMAN the Reintegration Department; we interviewed the Deputy Commander of the Hospital, the Heads and the Supervisors of the Administration Division and the Patients’ Admission Office, the President of the Limited Liability Social Cooperative (L.L.S.C.-KoiSPE). The visiting team information on patients’ restraint, meals, heating and personal hygiene products. Institutional interventions The Greek Ombudsman’s recommendations on the security measure of holding non-sane offenders in psychiatric hospitals included in the relevant provisions of L. 4509/2017 “Therapeutic measures for persons exempt from sentence due to psychiatric or mental disorder etc.”. The new law amends articles 69 and 70 of the Criminal Code regarding the imposition and duration of the security measure of therapeutic internment, which had been considered a sentence in disguise and criticized strongly, with a view to aligning it with the Constitution, as well as with UN, Council of Europe and ECHR decisions. By the same law, obsolete articles 38-41 of the Criminal Code, regarding the extraordinary sentence of psychiatric commitment for reduced accountability offenders considered a threat to public safety were abolished, and the Criminal Procedure Code was amended accordingly. Specifically, the Greek Ombudsman’s observations on the contradiction between guarding and therapeutic approach to mentally ill offenders were particularly taken into account -as depicted in the explanatory memorandum as well as in the discussion in Parliament. In article 9 of L. 4509/2017, describing the basic principles for implementing the measure, it is now formally stated that the amended articles serve a therapeutic purpose, that they must be implemented taking into account the internationally recognized rules on human rights protection and that all relevant acts must comply with safeguarding personal dignity and the principle of proportionality. The patient’s treatment needs must be taken into account, so as for therapeutic measures to be legally imposed and extended instead of eliminating danger in the sense of public safety. In addition, courts may now impose many more alternative sentences -apart from commitment- such as treatment in a non-hospital Mental Health Unit or out-patient office. There are also more means to achieve personalised therapeutic treatment, with mandatory multiple psychiatric diagnoses, in order to ensure control over diagnosing the mental disorder at the time the measure is imposed or extended. Patients enjoy more procedural guarantees, especially the right to appear in court in person -with legal counsel- at every stage of the procedure, the