NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS CONCERNING DEFENDANTS AND PERSONS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY WITH INTELLECTUAL AND/OR PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES IN LAW AND IN PRACTICE According to the judges it is useful pre-trial reports to be ordered by the court to the probation services so that information about disability can be identified and reflected by the court. 267 However, the interviewed psychologist says that pre-trial reports are not often ordered by the court in order to establish exactly what the condition of the convict is and what the most adequate probation measure for him/her would be. While working as a probation inspector he received decrees to prepare a pre-trial report and did so, but he said that he and his colleagues were not trained, they do not have a methodology for preparing a full-fledged pre-trial report, and they do not know what its legal value is. Thus, the probation officer risks giving unreliable information to the court, for it to be taken into account and to sentence, or not to sentence the relevant person to probation. 268 Trainings The present research did not find information about any training for professionals in criminal justice proceeding about their interaction with persons with IPD. The judges stated that they often ask each other for information or train themselves by attending paid (by them personally) courses abroad but in general ”these cases are not considered as particularly important”. A junior judge stated that in the training he had at the National Institute of Justice, he did not have lectures or practical training on how to work with disabled people. The manner of working with these people took place in the courtroom when he first met them as a junior judge in the City Court. According to him the way to conduct legal proceedings is also a matter of legal culture and it depends on the judge. In his opinion, a judge who hears such cases should at least once have gone to such a psychiatric hospital to see for himself what the conditions are like. It is very important in these proceedings that the court personally and immediately sees, perceives the specific disabled person and hears him/her. If it is not possible to bring the person concerned before the court, the judge must go to see him/her and make an adjourned hearing. 269 The interviews showed that police, prosecutors and probation officers do not receive any training either. The expert witnesses do not pass any assessment tests about their expertise either. pears at the probation office, he meets with the probation officer to complete this OASIS questionnaire. If the probation officer finds that this person is speaking incoherently, confused, has a peculiar behavior, he really has nothing to do. Because this person already has an enforced sentence, the court did not take into account the possible presence of a disability, it sentenced him and the probation officer’s hands are tied, he is obliged to comply with the court’s decision. 267 Bulgaria, Interview with District Court judge V.C. on 13 May 2022. I really want pre-trial reports from the probation officers. They work according to a methodology – OASIS and it is very useful, because through the pre-trial report there can be information at an earlier stage that the person probably has some intellectual or mental health problems. Because when they examine the person according to this methodology, they have separate criteria and it has happened in a pre-trial report that the probationer has an opinion that maybe the convicted person should be examined to determine whether or not there is any more serious deficiency. 268 Bulgaria, Interview with a prison psychologist, former probation officer M.V. on 6 June 2022. 269 Bulgaria, Interview with Sofia District Court judge V.K. on 9 June 2022. 62 SLAVKA KUKOVA