the WHO recommendation of 5 percent of the total national health budget (2.7 percent as of 2021). 74. Proposed recommendation: The State party should consolidate the Admission Legitimacy Review Committee (a body installed in national mental hospitals, etc.) and the Mental Health Deliberation Committee (a body under local governments) into a single independent review agency with quasi-judicial status; introduce a procedural assistant system to support decision-making by mental patients in involuntary admission and represent their interests70; abolish the system of involuntary hospitalization by legal guardians under Article 4371 of Mental Health and Welfare Act, and unify all involuntary hospitalization systems into one with the same requirements and procedures; and establish community-based mental health, welfare, and recovery systems so that mental patients can receive treatment and recover within their communities as much as possible.72 Issue 16. Prison Conditions 75. Although the NHRCK conducted on-site and ex officio investigations on overcrowding in correctional facilities and made recommendations for improvement approximately ten times, the overcrowding remains a long-standing problem that has not yet been resolved. In particular, the NHRCK viewed that it is in itself inhumane treatment constituting an excessive use of State penal power if the accommodation area per inmate73 is seriously small as to interfere with inmates’ basic human needs. Thus, the NHRCK recommended the Minister of Justice, in December 2021, to promptly formulate improvement measures.74 76. Meanwhile, based on the findings of on-site investigations of correctional facilities in 2018, the NHRCK concluded that it was necessary to improve human rights protection in interrogation and disciplinary procedures in correctional institutions. It subsequently recommended the Minister of Justice in January 2019 to develop improvement measures to promote human rights for inmates.75 The Ministry of Justice, however, did not adopt some of the recommendations. Those include wearing an identification card by the Correctional Rapid Patrol Team (CRPT); establishing criteria for selecting CRPT members; minimizing the use of protective devices on inmates; and putting upper limit on the disciplinary segregation period (15 days)76 and restrictions on consecutive impositions, etc.77 77. The NHRCK conducted on-site investigations of the medical treatment situation in ten correctional facilities across the country in November 2021. It found a significant shortage of medical staff and several cases with inmates’ right to health compromised due to the overall environment of correctional institutions. In July 2022, the NHRCK made recommendations accordingly that the Minister of Justice should increase the number of medical doctors in correctional facilities; improve medical treatment for mentally ill inmates; legalize the optimal temperature of inmates’ wards to protect their right to health; improve ward facilities 17