sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment only) and Ukraine10 – life-sentenced prisoners were as a rule kept separate from other sentenced prisoners. In several countries, the CPT observed that life-sentenced prisoners were also subjected to a very impoverished regime and draconian security measures. By way of example, life-sentenced prisoners were locked up in their cells (alone or in pairs) for 23 hours per day, were not allowed to associate even with life-sentenced prisoners from other cells (including during outdoor exercise), were not allowed to work outside their cell or were not offered any purposeful activities at all. Further, in several countries, life-sentenced prisoners were systematically handcuffed and/or stripsearched whenever they left their cells. In some establishments, the prisoners concerned were additionally escorted by two officers and a guard dog during any movement outside their cell. Moreover, in a number of establishments visited, prisoners were subjected to anachronistic rules, the sole aim of which was to further punish and humiliate the prisoners concerned (e.g. prohibition to lie down on the bed during the day, obligation to recite the relevant article of the criminal code under which they had been convicted, each time an officer opened the cell door, obligation to wear a prison uniform of a distinct colour, etc.). In the CPT’s view, such practices clearly have a dehumanising humiliating effect and are unacceptable. 10. In some countries (e.g. the Czech Republic, Lithuania and the Slovak Republic), life-sentenced prisoners must serve a certain period (between 10 and 15 years) in a separate unit before they may be transferred to an ordinary detention unit where they can associate with other sentenced prisoners. General Report of the CPT, 2015 ► Page 36 It is also noteworthy that, in some countries, the entitlements of life-sentenced prisoners to contacts with the outside world (in particular as regards visits) were extremely limited and significantly lower than those of other sentenced prisoners. 72. In some of the above-mentioned countries, steps have been taken in recent years by the prison authorities to alleviate the detention conditions of life-sentenced prisoners, in particular, by offering the prisoners work and other purposeful activities (including more association with other life-sentenced prisoners) and by following a more individualised approach when it comes to the imposition of security measures. However, much remains to be done to render the situation satisfactory. Regrettably, policies regarding the execution of sentences are still all too often based on the presumption that life-sentenced prisoners are by definition particularly dangerous and that the regime applied to such prisoners should in one way or another also have a punitive character. The CPT wishes to stress once again that there can be no justification for the systematic handcuffing or strip-searching of prisoners, all the more so when it is applied in an already secure environment. The Committee has also repeatedly stated that the use of dogs inside the detention area is unacceptable. In this connection, the Committee wishes to emphasise that the experience in various European countries has shown that life-sentenced prisoners are not necessarily more dangerous than other prisoners (see also paragraph 76). Further, as a matter of fact, life-sentenced prisoners – as indeed all prisoners – are sent to prison as a punishment and not to receive punishment.