3.1. Visits Regular, scheduled or immediate, unannounced visits to places of detention are the main direction of the Commissioner’s activity in the role of the NPM. After the designation as an NPM, both the quantity and quality indicators of the visits undertaken by the institution have gone up and the results have been documented more accurately and intensively. The visits have been carried out by the Commissioner and the NPM Group. It should also be mentioned that the regional centres of the Commissioner have also been involved in this activity. To allow the Commissioner and her representatives to freely conduct visits to places of detention, the relevant bodies have issued internal orders and instructions and created necessary conditions. Before starting visits as the NPM, in accordance with Article 20 subparagraph “a” of the OPCAT, inquiries were sent to the relevant bodies about the places of detention under their authority and those inquiries were responded to. Based on the submitted information, the list of the establishments falling under the jurisdiction of the NPM has been drawn up (see Appendix 1). Along with traditional establishments, other places which detainees are not permitted to leave at will – special boarding schools, psychiatric institutions, child homes, and homes for the elderly, which are closed institutions, have been included in the list as well. Based on the made list, the plan of visits has been prepared and visits have been carried out pursuant to and beyond this plan. Ad hoc visits have been undertaken for checking the state of implementation of the recommendations given during the previous visit, preventing prosecution against the persons who have communicated some information to the Commissioner in this or another form, satisfying the demand for increasing special attention on the basis of the information given by interviewed detainees about the establishment they were previously held and the information obtained from received applications and complaints, as well as on the Commissioner’s own initiative. 32