4.7 V  isits to prisons, their remote units, and Radeče Juvenile Correctional Facility In 2017, the NPM visited seven prisons and their remote units, i.e. Ljubljana Prison – the Ig Open Unit, Dob Prison – the Slovenska vas Semi-Open Unit, Ig Prison, Ljubljana Prison – the Novo mesto Unit, Dob Prison – the Puščava Open Unit, Koper Prison, Dob Prison and Radeče Juvenile Correctional Facility (CF). On two visits, i.e. to Ig Prison and Koper Prison, the group conducting the visit included the NPM’s medical expert. In the context of a thematic visit on conditions for the elderly, people with disabilities, people with impaired mobility, the deaf and hearing impaired, the blind and visually impaired, and mute people in prisons, the NPM separately visited 13 locations of prisons or their remote units, i.e. Dob Prison, Dob Prison – the Slovenska vas Semi-Open Unit, Dob Prison – the Puščava Open Unit, Ljubljana Prison, Ljubljana Prison – the Novo mesto Unit, Ljubljana Prison – the Ig Open Unit, Ig Prison, Maribor Prison, Maribor Prison – the Murska Sobota Unit, Maribor Prison – the Rogoza Open Unit, Koper Prison, Koper Prison – the Nova Gorica Unit and Celje Prison and Juvenile Prison. After each visit, the group implementing the visit prepared a report on their findings and recommendations, which was sent for discussion to the Prison Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, and for information to the prison visited or its remote unit in order to provide a response to the findings. At the time of preparing this report (31 January 2018), the Prison Administration had already provided a response to all the regular visits to prisons or their remote units and Radeče CF. The only exception was the report on the visit to Dob Prison (the report was sent to the Prison Administration on 4 January 2018). With regard to the thematic visit, a (joint) thematic report was prepared for all the locations visited, and sent for discussion to the Prison Administration (and for information to the visited prisons, their remote units, the Ministry of Justice, and the presidents of district courts, who inspect the prisons and their remote units) on 11 January 2018. At the time of preparing this text, we were therefore still waiting for the response of the Prison Administration to this report and the 26 recommendations we provided. Total number of all (new or repeated) recommendations Accepted Rejected Implemented No data No response yet 163 67 20 49 1 26 The recommendations were made after inspecting facilities for the accommodation of prisoners, conducting interviews with prisoners who wanted to be interviewed, and discussions with the management of the visited prison or remote unit and Radeče CF. The Prison Administration regularly responded to our recommendations, predominantly agreeing with our findings and recommendations and assuring us that individual deficiencies have already been eliminated. Of the 163 recommendations (not including the recommendations made during the thematic visit), 49 recommendations have been implemented, 67 have been accepted but not yet implemented (mostly due to the lack of financial resources or because more time is required for implementation), 20 recommendations have not been accepted, and the Prison Administration has not provided any comment on one of the recommendations. All the visits, with the exception of the visit to Koper Prison, where two foreign nationals, i.e. representatives of the Antigone organisation from Rome were present, and the visit to Dob Prison, were unannounced and made in the context of a regular, previously scheduled supervision. The visit to Dob Prison was conducted as a regular visit, but was slightly thematic in nature. An anonymous questionnaire was used to obtain information about specific topics, i.e. the familiarity of prisoners with the sentence enforcement regime, the participation of prisoners in the preparation of the personal plan, the work of the educational services, the cooperation of prisoners in small groups and house communities, and the inclusion of prisoners in leisure activities and special treatment programmes. The report on the visit included the following recommendations and proposals for improvement: • We recommend that a plan for each newly admitted person serving a prison sentence to confirm with their signature (e.g. on the admission papers) that they have been informed of their rights and obligations be considered. 88 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