support network to ensure regular outpatient treatment, resocialisation and recovery from crisis and hospital treatment; the lack of identification mechanism for the IPD; the extreme scarcity of forensic experts, hospitals and centres for placement for assessment and treatment; the delayed assessment of the disability; the lack of access to outpatient treatment especially for those who are not health insured; the lack of support services for defendants and detainees with IPD; the lack of sufficient capacity in the hospitals and the mental health centres for inpatient treatment; the sometimes inadequate, unclear, unreasoned assessments during the pre-trial proceedings; the lack of access to a fair trial for defendants declared as criminally irresponsible later in the proceedings; the long stay of persons under compulsory treatment in the psychiatric hospitals due to lack of community support services outside the hospitals; the release from compulsory treatment of persons who are not treated effectively and still pose a threat to themselves and others; the illegal deprivation of liberty of such persons due to social, financial, administrative reasons and lack of alternatives. The main gaps and issues related to penitentiary system and probation services are: the lack of psychological help and psychiatric therapy for detainees with IPD in pre-trial detention facilities and prisons; the low capacity of the staff who deal with the persons with disabilities in the prisons, in the prison hospitals and in other psychiatric institutions; the lack of mechanism for provision of support by the probation services to convicts with IPD; the lack of training of police, prosecutors, judges, probation officers for interaction with persons with IPD; the lack of database and referral mechanism of the residential, day-care, therapeutic services for persons with IPD. Bulgarian Helsinki Committee 7