The number of inmates with mental disorders is alarming. There were ninety-four mental illness hospitalizations in the psychiatric ward of the specialized hospital for prisoners in the city of Lovech. In 2015, there was one fatal case of suicidal hanging in the prison. THE PRISON IN THE CITY OF VARNA 1.1. At the time of the inspection there were three hundred and sixty-eight inmates housed in the main cellhouse of the Varna prison even though it is supposed to house only two hundred and seventy offenders at capacity. Hence, the prison is seriously overcrowded. A total of nine inmates sentenced to life imprisonment are housed in the higher security zone. Five of them are parole-eligible and four are serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole. The higher security zone was housing also twelve criminal defendants detained under the provision of Article 248, para 1 of the EPRCA. Eleven more inmates sentenced to life imprisonment were housed in the general population areas of the prison. The Varna prison and its two prison hostels fail to meet the international standards on the treatment of prisoners, detainees, and criminal defendants. The NPM did not detect any improvement in the cellhouse physical environment. Some general maintenance and repair work had indeed been performed. One fact merits a positive assessment though. The NPM’s recommendation that funding be provided for the project designed to renovate and modernize the prison hostel in the village of Razdelna had been taken into consideration and at the time of the inspection a major overhaul was underway. 1.2. The NPM did not observe any change in feeding arrangements both in the prison and in the two prison hostels. The inspection team found that the prison kitchen had been given just a facelift. The NPM recommends that the kitchen be overhauled and its worn-out equipment be replaced. 1.3. The share of working inmates in the prison at Varna continues to be extremely low. Most of them are engaged in facility services. A large number of inmates volunteer to work gratuitously. Employment rate is high only among the inmates accommodated in the ‘Varna’ PH. Seventy five percent of them on average have work assignments. 1.4. Sixty-four inmates from the main cellhouse attend prison school in the academic year 2015/2016. They are grouped in four classes. Instruction takes place in two classrooms, which belong formally to the outlying branch of the ‘Árgira Zhechkova’ prison school with the penitentiary in the city of Sliven. Inmates are actively engaged in various social, educational, cultural, and information functions, as well as in artistic and creative activity. Social work with inmates is carried out by officers from the DGEP’s Social Work and Educational Activities Section. 1.5. Medical services are provided to inmates by the prison’s healthcare centre. The centre’s physical environment and equipment appeared to be unchanged since the previous inspection. The HC was staffed by a manager, who is also a full-time clinician, a full-time medical director, a full-time assistant medical officer, and a full-time junior doctor. There were two full time vacancies for a dentist and a psychiatrist. A part-time dentist left the HC in early August 2015. During the inspection the NPM team found out that no disinfection, insect removal, and rat extermination were carried out in the cellhouse or in the two prison hostels. 1.6. Analysis of the punishments meted out to inmates in the cellhouse and in the two prison hostels shows that the most frequent inmate conduct infractions were possession of mobile phones, using narcotic drugs or alcoholic beverages, and assaulting another inmate. There had been cases of work release inmates escaping from job sites or failing to return to prison after home leave, town visits, compassionate leave, or hospitalization. The number of 41