occupancy capacities. What such a mechanism, which might be termed "prison regulation", comes down to is factoring prisons' occupancy capacities into sentence enforcement decisions. When grounded in local initiatives, this works, and it therefore appears advisable to extend this mechanism by incorporating it in the legal system. A prison regulation mechanism, enabling account to be taken of prisons' occupancy capacities in legal decisions, must be incorporated into the legal system. 1.1.3 Questioning the logic behind very short sentences and keeping people whose health is failing in prison Two categories of prisoners come into the equation as far as questioning the logic behind sentences is concerned: those given very short prison sentences and those whose health or age is incompatib le with being kept in prison. Offenders serving very short prison sentences in a conventional penal institution do not stay long enough for the prison rehabilitation and probation service to become familiar with their file and set up effective rehabilitation measures. This situation is only made more difficult in an overcrowded institution. For these people, encountered in all remand prisons, placement in detention cannot serve any useful purpose as regards rehabilitation – and can even have negative consequences because of the upheavals it can lead to on several fronts (in terms of family ties, housing, employment, training, social ties and so on) – and because of the "link" that this can create with the world of crime. What is more, one might also question what interest there is for the public finances in placing, for just a few weeks, people who sometimes present themselves to the security forces simply when summoned, in a system where security is particularly costly and designed for more serious crimes. Over 2016, the CGLPL also encountered prisoners whose advanced age or failing health hardly seemed compatible with keeping them detained. These include very elderly prisoners who, as is increasingly the case, are serving their first prison sentence, or younger people in poor health. Some of them never leave their cell, nor even their bed at times. And yet care arrangements for their disability whilst in detention are woefully insufficient. Sometimes their detention is prolonged simply because there is no other alternative accommodation option. The detaining of such people is a burden on the problem of overcrowding, and the insufficient care they receive can only lead to their health deteriorating that much more quickly. This particular case must therefore be addressed, but sentence enforcement judges and the prison administration, however willing (and on this point they can usually be relied upon), are not managing to find any satisfactory solutions at local level because of the lack of any comprehensively defined policy. The CGLPL recommends conducting a systematic policy aimed at looking for accommodation options tailored to people handed out very short prison sentences and prisoners whose advanced age or failing health is incompatible with being kept in detention. 1.2 The real estate policy of the prison administration, focusing on the creation of new places, does not guarantee sufficient maintenance to ensure that prisoners continue to be accommodated under acceptable conditions. Quite apart from the increase in number of prison places, it is only indirectly, through a discussion on budgetary difficulties, that the Minister of Justice's report touches on a question that is 17