TOPICS The detention and common rooms have been successively renovated and provided with new furnishings. They are light and friendly and the common rooms in particular are very homely. Each detention room has a completely separate wet room. The showers in the communal shower room are divided by partitions and are accessible to detainees all day. Several facilities enforcing custody pending deportation grant detainees generous unlocking times. Examples include Ingelheim (from 7 am to 10 pm) and Eisenhüttenstadt (from 7 am to 9 pm). In Berlin-Köpenick detainees awaiting deportation are only locked in during shift change-overs. Detainees awaiting deportation in Ingelheim are also permitted to use the recreation yard all day. In the facility in Berlin-Köpenick, detainees awaiting deportation are allowed to spend periods outdoors several times each day. A very diverse and wide-ranging programme of recreational and purposeful activities is available in the wing accommodating detainees awaiting deportation in Büren Prison, for example. Detainees awaiting deportation can take part in at least one organised recreational activity each day. Sports, music and art groups, as well as cookery courses are on offer. Detainees can also take German courses. Prayer rooms, a library and cooking facilities are also available. Particular mention should be made of the means of communication and information available in the facilities enforcing custody pending deportation in Rendsburg and Ingelheim. Internet access is available, and detainees can use the internet to make free telephone calls; detainees awaiting deportation may also use their mobile phones. In Ingelheim they may receive visitors between 9 am and 12 noon and between 1 pm and 8 pm. The facilities enforcing custody pending deportation in Eisenhüttenstadt, Berlin-Köpenick and Büren also have very long visiting times. The wing accommodating detainees awaiting deportation in Büren Prison applies a targeted selection procedure when it comes to its staff. Social care is provided by five employees of the company European Homecare. They are generally available in the facility on weekdays, where necessary also at weekends. They have various cultural backgrounds and therefore cover a wide spectrum of foreign languages. They have gained the trust of detainees awaiting deportation and contribute significantly to the good atmosphere in the facility. Ingelheim Detention Centre for Persons Required to Leave the Country is highly committed to finding targeted training measures for its staff through a planned cooperation with the Treatment Centre for the Victims of Torture. These courses are to train medical staff in recognising trauma. The Joint Commission regards the free legal advice provided in the facility in Büren Prison. which is organised by the local lawyers' association and is funded by the Land government. as exemplary when it comes to the provision of support and legal advice. The facility enforcing custody pending deportation in Eisenhüttenstadt offers the possibility of one-off free legal advice which is funded by the Government of Brandenburg. In the facility in Berlin-Köpenick the Republican Lawyers’ Association offers free legal advice once a week. At Ingelheim Detention Centre for Persons Required to Leave the Country detainees awaiting deportation are supported in asserting their rights by a member of the Diakonisches Werk HesseNassau employed by the facility. Further, nongovernmental organisations such as the Jesuit Refugee Service and Amnesty International provide advice and support in Eisenhüttenstadt, Ingelheim and in the wing in Mannheim Prison accommodating detainees awaiting deportation. Emphasis should also be given to the activities of the Land advisory council in Rendsburg Pre-Deportation Detention Facility. The advisory council visits the facility once a week, advises the Land department of justice and makes suggestions for improvements, and is thus involved in improving the conditions of detention and support provided to detainees awaiting deportation. 1.5 – RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE JOINT COMMISSION CONCERNING THE ENFORCEMENT OF CUSTODY PENDING DEPORTATION The Joint Commission would like its activities to contribute to the establishment and dissemination of common standards. As stated in the above, it advocates enforcing custody pending deportation in specialised facilities. Custody pending deportation should only be ordered as a means of last resort when deportation cannot be guaranteed by any other means. Analogous to the enforcement of custody for noncriminal reasons (Zivilhaft), detainees awaiting deportation should only have those restrictions imposed on them over and above the deprivation of liberty as are necessary to avert a threat to security or order in the facility. Especially taking account of the standards set by the 11 CPT and the 20 directives on forced returns of the 11 23 Cf. CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 - Rev. 2010