It is worth noting that notwithstanding the entitlement recognized in the Organic Law concerning the Public Defender, the representatives of the Public Defender do not have a possibility to examine recordings of visual and/or electronic surveillance. Besides, the Imprisonment Code and the Regulations about Storing, Deleting and Destroying Recordings allow visual observation by the administration of the penitentiary establishment of meetings of the representatives of the Public Defender with prisoners, through video recording without sound. The Public Defender demands changing this provision in relation to the members of the Special Preventive Group/the Public Defender, because it contradicts Article 19 (3) of the Organic Law concerning the Public Defender. According to the mentioned provision, meetings of the Public Defender/members of the Special Preventive Group with detainees, prisoners or persons otherwise deprived of liberty are confidential. Any kind of eavesdropping or surveillance is impermissible. The Public Defender is concerned that his concerns/recommendations regarding the use of special means were not taken into account in the Imprisonment Code. The Public Defender welcomes measures taken to increase accountability of employees of the penitentiary system. However, absence of the system for evaluating performance of functions by prison administrations and adequacy of working conditions for the staff of these establishments remain problematic. On the positive side, some steps have been made towards educating the staff. However, qualifications and experience of the staff of penitentiary establishments are still far from satisfactory. The Public Defender considers introducing the system for assessing risks of convicted persons as a step forward. Notwithstanding this, he considers that it is necessary to introduce changes to eradicate existing flaws. It is true that in comparison with previous years, environment and sanitary-hygienic conditions have improved in some penitentiary establishments. However, the existing conditions still call for considerable improvement to make them compliant with international standards. The state is obliged to eliminate the flaws in due time, notwithstanding the existing difficulties and create adequate conditions in prisons. In the Parliamentary Report of 2014, the Public Defender recommended the Minister of Corrections to close the establishment №7, due to inadequacy of conditions. According to the response, the Ministry cannot fully close the establishment at this stage, but intends to significantly reduce number of prisoners and distribute them to other establishments, according to the risk levels. They also plan full rehabilitation of the establishment №7, closure of the first floor of the building and reduction of limit for allocating the accused/the convicted persons. It is worth noting that in February 2016, 19 convicted persons were already transferred from the establishment №7 to the establishment №6. 16 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM (NPM), 2015