CAT/OP/KAZ/1 C. Women in detention 128. As in other colonies, detainees in the women’s colony in Zhaugashty village in Almaty Oblast lived in dormitories. In that colony, women with children under 3 years of age benefit from a special arrangement that allows them to spend most of the day with their children. The law allows for “children’s houses”, where conditions necessary for normal life and the development of the children are to be guaranteed.38 Outside of their working hours, convicted women can visit their children there, without restrictions. Upon the request of the mother, or at the latest when a child reaches 3 years of age, children are sent to relatives or orphanages and the usual, restrictive visit conditions apply. 129. More generally, the penitentiary system lacks the flexibility to meet women’s special needs and, since there are fewer colonies for women, women tend to be cut off from their families and friends even more than male prisoners are. Women also indicated that they found the marching and parading difficult. 130. The Subcommittee recommends allowing mothers and their small children to live together in conditions that maximally resemble life in the community. In the light of rule 52 (3) of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), special transitional measures in terms of ensuring further contact should be considered once children have reached the age of 3. In line with rule 59 of the Nelson Mandela Rules, prisoners should be allocated, to the extent possible, to prisons close to their homes. D. Children in detention 131. The Subcommittee welcomes the many efforts to reduce the number of children in detention and improvements regarding their rehabilitation and education. The delegation notes the generally good conditions in the Almaty juvenile colony, in particular the abundant dedicated staff, good medical equipment and access to schooling and sports facilities, as well as efforts aimed at rehabilitation and reintegration. Also, it appeared that the disciplinary cell had not been used for some time. At the same time, some stigmatizing practices continued, such as forced shaving of heads and the wearing of uniforms and badges listing the crimes committed and the sentence. 132. Four girls held in the women’s prison were detained separately and were attending school classes as the delegation visited. Boys in several pretrial detention facilities visited by the Subcommittee were held in the same cell with either one or more adult men who were not members of their family. Some of these cells, for example at the Kostanay pretrial detention facility, had no daylight entering and no ventilation. 133. In relation to the juvenile colony visited, the Subcommittee recommends that further measures be taken to ensure that life inside the colony prepares children for life in the community, in particular the facilitation of more regular contact with the community and the discontinuance of all stigmatizing measures, including the shaving of heads and wearing of uniforms and badges. When boys are placed in close contact with adults, which is the case in pretrial detention, it must be in their best interest and should be done, as stipulated in the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, as part of a special programme that has been shown to be beneficial for the juveniles concerned. VII. Other institutions under the Subcommittee mandate Ministry of Health 134. The Subcommittee visited a number of psychiatric institutions and drug rehabilitation centres. According to official information, at the time of the visit about 3,000 persons were being held in psychiatric, drug rehabilitation and tuberculosis institutions. In 38 20 Criminal Execution Code, art. 116.