site.btaEuropean Committee Welcomes Abolition of 24-Hour Shifts for Custodial Staff at Bulgarian Prisons

Sofia, August 4 (BTA) - The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) welcomed the abolition of 24-hour shifts for custodial staff at Bulgarian prisons, the Bulgarian Justice Ministry reported on Monday.

CPT, which functions under the Council of Europe, expressed its approval of the change in a report made available to the Justice Ministry's Directorate-General for the Implementation of Penal Sanctions earlier in the day.

In previous years, CPT repeatedly called for the abolition of 24-hour shifts for custodial staff at Bulgarian prisons, the Ministry recalled. A new work schedule for Bulgarian prison officers became effective on June 1.

In this latest report, CPT also hailed the fact that the number of convicts in the country has decreased. This has resulted from an increase in probation sentences and sentence commutations, and the implementation of a pilot project on electronic monitoring which covers 200 people.

A CPT delegation which toured Bulgarian prisons this spring called on the government to attach priority importance to the planned construction of a new prison in the capital Sofia and the expansion of the prisons in Bourgas and Varna.

It is CPT's practice to send delegations to prisons in order to see how inmates are treated. The delegations are given unrestricted access to the prisons. They talk to inmates tete-a-tete and are free to communicate with anyone who can give them information.