19 In 2017, the CCB had two meetings, on September 5 and November 7.62 The latter happened to be the last meeting of the CCB established in 2015 for three years.63 During the meeting, the Head of the Department announced that the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights had published the call for application for the next three-year period. 3.2. The meetings of the CCB The main topic of the September 5 meeting of the CCB was the evaluation of the NPM’s activities during the previous year.64 The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights informed the participants that, in 2016, the NPM had visited 10 places of detention accommodating 3,061 detainees, published 10 reports containing 239 recommendations. In 144 cases, the NPM made recommendations to the head of the place of detention, in 70 cases to the head of the supervising organ, 24 recommendations concerned legislation. The Head of the Department informed the participants about the major dialogs conducted with the authorities concerned in the wake of the reports on the 2016 visits. The discussed topics included psychiatric care for children, expansion of the prison hospital in Tököl, restrooms in Kaposvár Prison, suicide prevention and body search in the penitentiary system, problems concerning the Forensic Psychiatric and Mental Institution (hereinafter the “FPMI”) (gradual approach, system of guarantees, deinstitutionalization, adaptive leave, stronger involvement of the Ministry of Human Capacities [hereinafter the “MoHC”], catering issues), electronic signaling system in the lock-up facility in Tököl, the detainees’ pension and social security, view blockers installed on the cells’ windows, the legal frameworks of making phone calls in penitentiary institutions, patients’ rights in closed psychiatric wards. The NPM briefed the members of the CCB on the locations of the visits conducted so far in 2017 and the major inspection criteria. The next item on the agenda was the discussion of the recommendations made by those CCB members who had been selected as a result of the call for application and which had been presented, in eight points, by Steven Allen, representative of the MDAC, on March 22, 2017, during the visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention. 65 To the Menedék Association’s question regarding the eight recommendations, the potential impact on the relations between the CCB and the NPM from the aspects of the rules of procedure and competences, the Head of the Department explained that the issues raised by the members were outside the rules of procedure regulating the CCB’s operation. The Deputy Head of the Department added that the members had submitted their applications being aware of the rules of procedure. Answering to the question of the representative of the Hungarian Bar Association regarding the possibility to conduct 25 visits and publish the same number of reports, the Deputy Head of the Department pointed out that the capacities at hand would not make it possible. She stressed that the number of reports in itself did not reflect the actual professional work. The draft reports are compiled from several parts and are approved by the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights after their legal review. When evaluating the NPM’s performance, one should also take into consideration that nearly one-third of the legislative recommendations requiring thorough dogmatical development are the results of the Commissioner’s activities conducted as NPM. These recommendations may touch upon the entire system of deprivation of liberty and detention regimes; some of these required hours-long The materials of the September 5 meeting of the CCB are filed in my Office under number AJB-4836/2017, and the materials of the November 7 meeting under number AJB-185/2018. The minutes of the CCB meetings are accessible to the public on the NPM’s homepage. http://www.ajbh.hu/opcat 63 The first-ever meeting of the CCB was held on November 19, 2014. 64 The documents of the November 7 meeting are filed in the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights under number AJB4836/2017. 65 See Annex 1 62