Visits to places of deprivation of liberty planning the 2018 budget by considering financial possibilities and technical feasibility. To this year’s recommendation, the Prison Administration replied that when planning investments in the building of the Nova Gorica Unit of Koper Prison the problem was in the fact that the Prison Administration did not own the buildings (it was a subtenant) and could thus only implement current maintenance and purchase movable equipment. Due to the aforementioned, the renovation of the cell was not placed in the investment maintenance plan. The second unaccepted recommendation relating to the examination of possibilities to connect the internal recreation area (for remand prisoners) and the external recreation area (for convicted persons) was also repeated. To our recommendation in 2016, the Prison Administration responded that the proposal would be examined when planning the 2018 budget by observing financial capabilities and feasibility. The Prison Administration replied to the repeated NPM recommendation that it would denote a large project from the technical and financial viewpoint, which it could not implement because it did not own the building and could only perform ongoing maintenance works. During the visits, we also submitted two systemic recommendations, i.e.: The first systemic recommendation of the NPM to Maribor Prison related to the proposal to examine possibilities to arrange or install collection boxes where prisoners could submit letters and applications also in other prisons and their units at other locations. As per the above recommendation, the Prison Administration replied that it would examine the proposal. It also stated that it was planning the implementation of a test submission of applications in an electronic form within the “eCell” pilot project, and that it would also examine possibilities of submitting other letters and applications. The second systemic recommendation given in Maribor Prison dealt with the examination of possibilities to enable access to television programmes in other prisons and their units at other locations in Slovenia in the same way as this was arranged in Maribor Prison, i.e. through a cable system. Although the Prison Administration did not particularly state its position on the relevant recommendation, we noticed during our visits that other prisons had gradually started arranging access to cable television. Control visit to Celje Prison and Juvenile Prison In 2018, we paid an announced control visit to Celje Prison and Juvenile Prison. The control visit was announced since it was attended by the representatives of the Hungarian NPM as external observers. In particular, we examined the realisation of 24 recommendations submitted on the occasion of the previous, regular and unannounced visit on 22 September 2016. At that time, 19 targeted, three systemic (these referred mainly to the work in the infirmary) and 12 general recommendations were given. The recommendations related to the possibilities for activities (three recommendations), living conditions (11 recommendations), discussion of prisoners and the forms of work (two recommendations), other things – issuing invoices in the prison shop (one recommendation), the staff (two recommendations) and health care (five recommendations) During the control visit, we established that from a total of 24 recommendations from the previous visit, 16 were accepted and realised, seven were accepted but not yet realised, andone recommendation was not accepted. The latter referred to the repair of a damaged bench for lifting weights or the arrangement of the fitness room. Since no progress was noted in this field, we again proposed to equip the fitness room with more devices (also one, which could be used by female remand prisoners). We also suggested moving the fitness equipment into a larger room, which would allow the installation of more devices (e.g. exercise bicycle, etc.). To this repeated recommendation, the Prison Administration replied that Celje Prison and Juvenile Prison had equipped the fitness room for convicted persons with two additional devices in July 2018. The prison also examined the possibility of transferring the fitness room for remand prisoners into a larger room within the prison, but it determined that was not feasible according to spatial capacities and while observing other priority uses of prison facilities. The report on the control visit also included a new recommendation that walls in two rooms of the juvenile unit be painted as soon as possible. Upon the next visit to Celje Prison and Juvenile Prison, we will examine the realisation of this recommendation. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2018 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 39