Foreign prisoners Delivery and renewal of residence permits Life sentences External movements on legal and medical grounds, transfers Penal institutions Mothers imprisoned with their young children Treatment of women Geographic location of institutions breach of the right to maintain family ties. The CGLPL also recommends that family visiting room requests made by people placed in the disciplinary wing not be systematically rejected, but rather be subject to consideration on a case-by-case basis. Untried prisoners and convicted prisoners serving sentences of under three months are not able to benefit from the scheme whereby foreign nationals can renew their residence permit by post, pursuant to an interministeral circular dated 25 March 2013. The Chief Inspector considers this exclusion to constitute unequal treatment between prisoners as it prevents people whose residence permits expire at the start of their imprisonment to undertake the necessary formalities. They must thus make their application upon release, as if it were their first application, with a great deal more red tape involved. The Chief Inspector is concerned by the creation of a new category of life sentence by the Act of 3 June 2016. The procedure set up for lifting the unconditional imprisonment period applied to such sentences is specific and extremely restrictive. It may only be lifted under exceptional circumstances and subject to five strict conditions – not least that the prisoner has served at least thirty years. This sentence therefore resembles de facto a whole-life order and opens France up to condemnation on the part of the European Court of Human Rights, since undergoing mandatory sentencing de jure or de facto amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment. The Chief Inspector has observed persistent dithering over the enforcement of legal decisions concerning transfers, authorisations for escorted leave and external movements for medical reasons. The prison administration must devote sufficient staff numbers to these fundamental missions for respecting prisoners' rights. Moreover, it appears judicious for the gendarmerie and police forces to be able to reinforce prison administration staff numbers where there are shortages. The CGLPL duly notes the intentions to amend the regulations on the conditions for accommodating children allowed to stay with their imprisoned mother. It also notes that the planned facilities in new institutions will comply with its recommendations. It will see that these intentions are effective and, despite the physical difficulties this poses, recommends that the "nursery" wings of existing institutions be brought into line with the recommendations expressed in the opinion of 8 August 2013. The low number of women deprived of liberty should not justify their unequal distribution across the territory, which violates the right to maintain family ties. In this respect, the CGLPL recommends opening a "detention centre" wing for women in the South of France. 155 4 4 4 3 2