ber of life-sentenced prisoners had increased by 66% from 2004 to 2014. Further, in 2014, there were about 7,500 inmates held in indeterminate detention for security or public protection reasons in various member states of the Council of Europe (in particular the United Kingdom (England and Wales), Germany, Italy and Switzerland). 70. In the 1990s, the former communist countries of central and eastern Europe specified a period of imprisonment of 20 to 35 years as a blanket minimum for all commuted sentences and new life sentences, without any individual factors being taken into account until this period had elapsed. Equally, many states failed to develop regimes for life-sentenced prisoners tailored to their individual situation. Rather, all such sentenced prisoners were considered to be “dangerous” and in need of ongoing strict control. Now, 20 to 25 years later, as some prisoners start to approach the moment when they may apply for conditional release, there is a realisation that little has been done to give such prisoners a realistic hope of release back into the community. Indeed, long periods of negative treatment in prison, severely restricting the right to maintain relationships with family and friends outside, and a total lack of preparation for release or planning of reintegration are likely to impair seriously the ability of prisoners to function in the outside community. Some of the above-mentioned countries have come to recognise the need to prepare life-sentenced prisoners for release. These countries, as well as those which abolished the death penalty much earlier, have established judicial, quasi-judicial, administrative or executive measures for considering the release of life-sentenced prisoners on an individual basis. Regimes have been developed to address the individual behaviour of the prisoners, offering them education and work. Further, contacts with the outside world, especially with families where possible, have been fostered and outside public and charitable agencies have become involved with them as they progress through their sentence. All this serves both to preserve their “humanity” during the sentence and to prepare them for release. Managing life-sentenced prisoners presents challenges to prison administrations to maintain a positive atmosphere, particularly in the first decade of a life sentence but also as some of these prisoners move into old age. The experience of these states provides a good source of knowledge in proposing techniques to maintain respect for the rights of prisoners facing indeterminate sentences, even though the indeterminacy on its own, no matter how long it may last, creates particular psychological pressures for the prisoner. The CPT’s findings during visits 71. The CPT has visited a large number of prison establishments across Europe in which life-sentenced prisoners were accommodated. The conditions under which such prisoners were being held varied significantly from one establishment to another. In many countries, lifesentenced prisoners were usually held together with other sentenced prisoners and benefited from the same rights in terms of regime (work, education and recreational activities) and contact with the outside world as other sentenced prisoners. However, in a number of countries – including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey (prisoners Situation of life-sentenced prisoners ► Page 35