Too steep ramp in Department III of Dob Prison Narrow entry to the Maribor Prison living area, the Murska Sobota Unit Staircase in Ljubljana Prison Staircase in Ig Prison None of the prisons or their remote units (yet) employ staff or caregivers who could provide vulnerable people in custody with the required assistance with personal care and hygiene or other similar activities. Our findings show that such assistance is regulated differently in different prisons and their remote units. It is offered by health staff or an outsourced provider/caregiver, so it is not uniformly regulated who pays for these services (in some cases, the services are paid for by the person in custody; in some cases by the prison on the basis of a work order; or in others by the Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia on the basis of a work order by the prison clinic). The majority of vulnerable people in custody also take a number of different drugs to alleviate pain and maintain their health. It was established that in the majority of the prisons and their remote units the medication of vulnerable people in custody (and other people in custody) is prepared in the prison clinic and distributed by judicial police officers. In its reports, the Ombudsman or the NPM has repeatedly emphasised the problems regarding such arrangements (e.g. during the visit to Koper Prison, 21 June 2017). On the basis of these final findings, the NPM issued the following recommendations for improvement: • In order to ensure their equal treatment, we recommend that the Prison Administration prepares a special strategy with detailed instructions and guidelines for the treatment of vulnerable people in custody. These should include the provision and training of staff who will see to the needs of this vulnerable group, determine the special characteristics of the classification and accommodation of vulnerable people in custody, and their healthcare, access to programmes and services, safety, and preparation for release or early (conditional) release.41 41  In accordance with Chapter 5.4: Older prisoners and prisoners with physical disabilities, pages 55-56, A Handbook for Prison Staff with Focus on the Prevention of Ill-Treatment In Prison, Council of Europe, Slovenian translation: Ministry of Justice, Prison Administration 2017. 96 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2017 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT