Places visited by the National Preventive Mechanism in 2011 equipment, and open sanitary areas are particularly arduous and fail to meet the standards provided for in international and national legal instruments. Therefore, the Mechanism ordered urgent renovation of the pavilions listed above. The visiting team was concerned with the sanitary conditions in cells inhabited by several prisoners (Nowy Wiśnicz Prison, Sieradz Prison, Koronowo Prison). In the opinion of the NPM representatives, even though the national provisions do not specify the maximum capacity of cells in penitentiary establishments, it is impossible for sanitary and hygienic conditions in cells inhabited by around a dozen prisoners to meet the minimum standards of international law as regards the protection of rights and dignity of persons living in them. CPT expressed a similar opinion in its 11th General Report: in a number of countries visited by the CPT, particularly in central and eastern Europe, inmate accommodation often consists of large capacity dormitories which contain all or most of the facilities used by prisoners on a daily basis, such as sleeping and living areas as well as sanitary facilities The CPT has objections to the very principle of such accommodation arrangements in closed prisons and those objections are reinforced when, as is frequently the case, the dormitories in question are found to hold prisoners under extremely cramped and insalubrious conditions. No doubt, various factors – including those of a cultural nature – can make it preferable in certain countries to provide multi-occupancy accommodation for prisoners rather than individual cells. However, there is little to be said in favour of – and a lot to be said against – arrangements under which tens of prisoners live and sleep together in the same dormitory. Large-capacity dormitories inevitably imply a lack of privacy for prisoners in their everyday lives. Moreover, the risk of intimidation and violence is high. Such accommodation arrangements are prone to foster the development of offender subcultures and to facilitate the maintenance of the cohesion of criminal organisations. They can also render proper staff control extremely difficult, if not impossible; more specifically, in case of prison disturbances, outside interventions involving the use of considerable force are difficult to avoid. With such accommodation, the appropriate allocation of individual prisoners, based on a case by case risk and needs assessment, also becomes an almost impossible exercise. All these problems are exacerbated when the numbers held go beyond a reasonable occupancy level; further, in such a situation the excessive burden on communal facilities such as washbasins or lavatories and the insufficient ventilation for so many persons will often lead to deplorable conditions69. Moreover, Rule 19.3 of the European Prison Rules70 states: Prisoners shall have ready access to sanitary facilities that are hygienic and respect privacy. Similar is the approach in Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners71, where Rule 12 provides: The sanitary installations shall be adequate to enable every prisoner to comply with the needs of nature  See: §29 of the 11th General Report [CPT/Inf (2001) 16].  Recommendation Rec(2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Prison Rules, adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 11 January 2006 at the 952nd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies. 71  Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted in Geneva in 1955 by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977. 69 70 47