CAT/OP/ROU/1/Add.1 SITUATION OF PERSONS DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY A. Police Detention 1. Confinement and preventive arrest centres Par. 70-71 - Limitation of the use of pre-trial detention The Romanian Government believes that ample progress has been made in the field of alternative pre-trial measures following the entry into force of the Criminal Procedure Code. Furthermore, the Code provides general safeguards which come to restrict the action of agents of the state. Arbitrary action from their part is excluded by the legal safeguards, corroborated with the severe punishments for illegally detaining or otherwise limiting the freedom of movement of any person. On the issue of transferring detainees to penitentiaries sooner to prevent overcrowding, there have been ample discussions with all stakeholders. The conclusion was that the best option is currently to invest in the improvement of the current system. The reasons are that the National Administration of Penitentiaries does not have detention facilities in all counties, so transferring detainees between them and police stations, prosecutor’s offices and/or courts of law would be costly and not time-effective. Seeing that procedures implying pretrial measures need to be very fast, as a general rule, time is always of the essence. 2. Material conditions Par. 76 - Speeding up of investments in detention facilities. Ministry of Internal Affairs would like to reaffirm our commitment to improving all the detention facilities under the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police management, to the point where the international instruments are being fully respected. B. Penitentiary institutions 1. Overcrowding Para. 79 – Reducing overcrowding The problem of overcrowding is well known at the level of the Romanian Government, especially in the context in which, on 25th April 2017, the European Court of Human Rights rendered the pilot-judgment in the case of Rezmiveş and others v. Romania. By the pilot-judgment of 25th April 2017, the European Court of Human Rights decided that, within six months from the date on which the judgment became final, the Romanian Government had to provide, in cooperation with the Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe, a precise timetable for the implementation of the appropriate general measures aiming to solve the problem of prison overcrowding and of material conditions of detention, according to the European Convention for Human Rights principles as stated in the judgment. We would like to remind that by the Memorandum on “The intention of the European Court of Human Rights to apply the pilot-judgment in cases regarding the conditions of detention”, adopted on 19th January 2016, the Romanian Government undertook the improving of the situation of overcrowding in penitentiaries hoping to avoid the pilot-judgment. On 27th of April 2016, the Romanian Government adopted a Memorandum on “The approval of the calendar of the necessary measures to be taken in order to improve the condition of detention and the probation system”, under which a budget of EUR 740,234,582 has been allocated to the National Administration of Penitentiaries for investment in prison infrastructure for the next seven years (2016-2023). By the Memorandum of April 2016, the consolidation of probation 25