However, it regrets the absence of progress in applying safeguards against ill-treatment in police custody, inter-prisoner violence, severe understaffing and problems with the supply of medication.

In respect of persons in police custody, the great majority of the interviewed persons stated that they had been treated correctly by the police, even though the delegation again received some allegations of physical ill-treatment (mostly in Sofia).

Material conditions could be considered acceptable for the detention of a maximum of 24 hours but were unsatisfactory for any longer period. The CPT highlights the absence of any real progress in the application of fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment – namely the right to notify one’s detention to a third party, the right of access to a lawyer and to a doctor, and the right to be informed of the above-mentioned rights. These safeguards are hardly ever applicable during the initial 24-hour police custody.

The committee also calls upon the Bulgarian authorities to reinforce severely understaffed health-care teams in prisons visited, significantly increase the supply of free-of-charge medication, and to improve the provision of psychiatric care to prisoners. Besides, the “highly unsatisfactory” situation of inmates with physical and/or learning disability who are not offered adapted conditions or care, should be remedied. The committee is also concerned about the lack of progress in addressing the widespread substance use problem among inmates and the related health issues such as HIV and hepatitis.

As for psychiatric establishments and social care homes, the committee already issued a public statement last November strongly criticising the persistent failure of the Bulgarian authorities to address most of the fundamental shortcomings in the treatment, conditions and legal safeguards, and to implement the specific recommendations repeatedly made by the CPT for more than 25 years.

These recommendations concerned physical ill-treatment of patients by staff, appalling level of hygiene, deplorable shortage of staff, the use of seclusion and mechanical restraint in breach of international guidelines, as well as the lack of progress with de-institutionalisation. “Urgent action is needed in all areas – legislation, infrastructure, human resources and training, and the development of bio-psycho-social treatments in line with modern practices across Europe,” the committee declared, stressing that “the whole systemic approach to mental health care and institutional social care in Bulgaria must radically change”.