- 27 The CPT has serious misgivings about penitentiary staff carrying firearms in a health-care establishment, especially one in which patients with mental disorders are deprived of liberty. Exceptional circumstances and an individual risk assessment may warrant the adoption of special security measures. However, in the Committee's view, such measures must be proportionate and interfere as little as possible with the therapeutic vocation of the health care establishment. In particular, having carried out a risk assessment of the individual in question, less intrusive measures than the presence of armed personnel should be considered, such as the use of a secure room, or, as regards the forensic psychiatric context, a high security wing. The CPT recommends that the relevant authorities consider the foregoing precepts when determining any security arrangements to be made for the custody of prisoners within a hospital environment. 8. Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital 58. The CPT’s delegation paid a targeted visit to Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital, focussing on the treatment of persons with mental disorders (as opposed to drug-dependent patients), and both the segregation and the reception/protection units. 59. At the time of the visit, Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital was still entirely under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice, pending its integration into the Greek national health services. By letters of 7 June 2018, the Greek health and justice authorities informed the CPT that responsibility for medical services at Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital would be transferred to the Ministry of Health by September 2018, pursuant to a Presidential Decree outlining a range of measures foreseen for the management of the Hospital. The CPT welcomes the finalisation of this transfer of responsibility, which has been pending since 200932; it should, in principle, facilitate the establishment's transformation into a proper healthcare facility, as has been recommended by the CPT on each of its five previous visits33.The CPT trusts that the transfer of responsibility will be accompanied by resolute action in addressing the Committee's long-standing recommendations in respect of Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital. 60. Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital remains the only establishment in Greece for the placement of prisoners who are mentally ill. At the time of the visit the establishment had a de facto maximum capacity – indeed the only capacity referred to by staff during the visit – of 270 persons. There were 238 patients at the time of the visit, representing a decrease (from 265) since 2005, but a significant level of overcrowding as compared to the (nominal) official capacity of 160. Sixty-seven persons detained at the Hospital were classified as workers, the vast majority of whom had no psychiatric illness or addiction issue justifying their placement at the Hospital. Similarly to the situation observed in 199334, the CPT's delegation received allegations that certain prisoners had managed to arrange a transfer to the Hospital in order to benefit from the better conditions there as compared to ordinary prison35. 32 33 34 35 See Section 13 of Law 3772/2009. CPT visits to Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital took place in 1993, 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2005. See the CPT’s 1993 visit report (CPT/Inf (94) 20), paragraph 178. A police investigation into an alleged medical certificate scam, allowing prisoners to purchase their way into placement at Korydallos Prison Psychiatric Hospital, was opened in May 2018.