young children (from 10 months to 24 months old) who were living with their mothers in the prison and did not figure at all in the official statistics, nor in budgetary provisions. The prison was reportedly built for 400 prisoners, and later extended. The director of Cotonou Prison confirmed that there was no criterion for certifying the capacity of the prisons. 149.At Abomey Prison, the population at the time of the visit was reported as 1,105 prisoners. There were 1,035 male prisoners, 22 of them male adolescent detainees who were held in a separate unit; all female prisoners were housed in two parts of a separate unit for women, with four female adolescent detainees among them, in addition to 10 babies and young children aged from 30 days old to 4 years old. The prison was reportedly built in 1,950 for 200 prisoners, with ten buildings designed to house 20 prisoners each. This level of occupancy was, according to the current director, never respected. The inner compound of the Prison was as a result very cramped and detainees had little space available to exercise outside the buildings where they slept. 150.The SPT notes that the authorities intend to transfer all sentenced prisoners to the new prison opened in November 2007 in Akpro-Missérété, so that the remaining eight prisons are used for remand prisoners only. The delegation also heard of plans to build more new prisons along the Akpro-Missérété Prison model. In this regard, the director of Abomey Prison referred to a site having already been identified to house a new prison for 1,000 detainees. However, prison building alone will not constitute, and should not be seen as, the sole solution to the current overcrowding. 151.Representatives of the Ministry of Justice informed the delegation that a number of steps have been taken to address the overcrowding, including discussions on alternative measures to detention, particularly for adolescent detainees; use of the annual presidential pardon; introduction of social rehabilitation activities to reduce the number of repeat offenders; and the drafting of a bill on community work as an alternative to detention. The SPT encourages Benin’s for its efforts in this regard, and notes that article 118 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that preventive detention should be an exceptional measure. 152.The SPT notes that no information was provided on the availability of bail as an alternative to remand. Although bail might be granted by the court, there could still be financial obstacles to achieving bail in practice. A number of detainees in prisons complained about the very high amounts imposed by the judge for bail. This may be a factor contributing to the population remanded in custody. The SPT requests information on whether and how an individual ’ s financial situation might be taken into account in the setting of bail, the number of persons granted bail in 2007, and the number of persons who, despite being granted bail, were unable to be released because they were unable to pay the amount. The SPT invites the authorities to ensure observance of the principle that release on bail should be the rule, and remand custody the exception and to consider the introduction of legal time limits for proceeding to trial. 153. The SPT recommends that a concerted strategy be adopted by the authorities to reduce the prison population through a combination of measures, including: (a) Conducting a thorough review of bottlenecks in criminal procedures before the various instances, in order to identify gaps in resources and structural reasons for delays; (b) Increasing communication and cooperation between the courts and the prisons to minimize delays in transmitting judgments and orders, and in particular release orders, to ensure that persons are released as soon as the courts so orders; (c) Use of non-custodial measures for children, in accordance with Order No. 69-23 of 10 July 1989 relating to judgments of crimes committed by minors; (d) Diversion from custody of persons charged with petty offences through the use of other measures (such as caution) or a fine proportionate to the financial means of the individual person; (e) Reduction in the number of people remanded in custody through the use of conditional release (liberté proviso ire) in accordance with article 120 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (with or without bail), and article 358 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; (f) Respecting legal times for dealing with cases provided for in the Code of Criminal Procedure; (g) Release of all remand prisoners who have already been in custody for longer than the maximum prison sentence imposable for the offence of which they stand accused; (h) Reduction of the sentenced population through the imposition of community penalties, reparation and restitution; (i) Increase in the use of the régime de semi-liberté in accordance with article 574 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; (j) Increase in the use of release on license/parole ( liberté conditionelle ) in accordance with article 580 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (conditional release of sentenced prisoners meeting risk assessment criteria); and (k) Commutation of all death sentences so that there is a possibility of review and eventual release. (a)Remand prisoners 154.According to article 570 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, remand prisoners in Benin can be detained in prisons where sentenced prisoners are serving their sentence. However, they should be detained separately from sentenced prisoners and, if possible, detained in individual cells. The separation between prévenus/inculpés and sentenced prisoners is also provided for in article 15 of Decree No. 73-293. As will be detailed below, there was no such separation in the two prisons to which the delegation paid full visits.