The cell is the smallest unit in the Prisoners’ Committee structure. Depending on the size of the cell, each cell has its own administrative structure made up of committees. The smaller the cell, the fewer will be the number of inmates and the fewer will be the number of Committees from the cell. Members of each cell elect from amongst the prisoners in that cell, members of the various committees who would manage their affairs and ensured the proper behaviour and wellbeing of all the prisoners in the cell. The Committee members elected from the cell level represent the cell at the Zonal level. The Zones have all the committees found at the cell level. Each zone will then elect representatives to the Main Committee or General Committee of prisoners. This Committee is also the General Assembly of Zonal Prison Administration. At the top of this organisation is the Chief Prison Administrator, the only non-elective, non-prisoner member. The Chief Prison Administrator serves as an ex-officio member. All matters regarding prisoners’ welfare, from allocation of cells to discipline are handled by the relevant committees. The prisons are like “independent self administered communities”. Prisoners have been allocated plots to undertake businesses. In all the prisons, there are “thriving businesses” – small provision shops, tailors, cafeteria, etc. The committees engage the authorities to complain on behalf of the prisoners about certain matters. The prisoners also have Cooperative Shops for the prisoners’ body as a whole. Income generated from this shop is saved in the prisoners’ cooperative run by the prisoners. This money is used to buy items such as soap and other items for prisoners. In the Addis Ababa prison for example, the committee provides two soaps each to all prisoners monthly. When a prisoner is released, a certain fraction of the money is given to him/her. Individual prisoners can also save their money with the cooperative. The Cooperative Shop Committee employs prisoners to sell in the shops and they are paid. There is an Audit Committee which does routine auditing and inspection of the shops to ensure accountability. The Committee system seems to be working very well as prisoners deal with their peers and are hardly “in contact with the authorities” where they can have confrontation. The Special Rapporteur raised certain concerns about the Committee system. The first is that, the Committee system has allowed the government to abdicate its responsibility of providing basic necessities to prisoners. Every aspect of prisoners’ welfare has been left to the Committees. Secondly, the Committees are not made of experts or professionals in the various fields, so there is a possibility that things are not managed properly. Even though the prisoners claim that they try to ensure that persons with certain background are elected to a particular committee, they also concede that at times they have to do 42 Report of the Mission of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons to Ethiopia 15 – 29 March 2004