Babies and children of female detainees be provided with sufficient clothes, nappies, soap and towels and a sleeping place of their own, e.g. a cradle Women and female adolescent detainees be granted equal access to activities and workshops organised within the prison and to specific activities tailored towards their needs At a minimum, all female adolescent detainees and children of women detainees of schooling age should have access to education classes 9.Contact with the outside world 281.Maintaining contact with the outside world and, in particular, sustaining family and other affective ties is an important element of custodial care and crucial for the eventual re-integration of prisoners into society without re-offending. Moreover, the ability to communicate with family and friends can be a safeguard against ill-treatment, which tends to flourish in the most closed environments. 282.There were two telephones at Cotonou Prison for 2241 prisoners (excluding the prisoners sentenced to death) and one telephone at Abomey Prison for the 1105 prisoners which were controlled and run by the prisoner hierarchy. Prisoners with money could buy a telephone card, reportedly at prohibitive prices. Calls were monitored for security purposes. In addition, mobile phones had been confiscated since a recent escape attempt on 24 December 2006 from Cotonou Prison. The number of telephones was clearly insufficient for the high number of detainees. By letter of 7 November 2008, the authorities informed the SPT that detainees have complained that they could not communicate with their families. In those prisons where such complaints had been made, directors had been authorised to install public telephones to allow prisoners to communicate with their families. 283.According to the director of Cotonou Prison, prisoners organised the schedule of visits and searching of prisoners, under the supervision of two gendarmes. At Abomey Prison, prisoners reported that they did not have to pay to have a visit, but the visit time allotted to each prisoner was very short and visitors or the prisoner had to pay for extra time. This would explain why the delegation saw visitors paying cash to the gendarme on duty at the visitors’ reception desk. 284. The SPT recommends that rules for visiting times and duration of visits be clear and posted in writing at the entrance of each prison. All visits should be registered and the prison authorities should oversee the visiting system to ensure that the rules are abided by, and that no staff or detainees receive any bribes regarding visiting. All detainees should be informed of the rules verbally, and the rules should be posted in writing in poster and pamphlet format throughout the prison. All detainees, including prisoners sentenced to death, should have the possibility of receiving family visits. 10.Allegations of physical ill-treatment and corroborative findings 285.In general, the delegation heard few allegations of physical ill-treatment of prisoners by prison staff, apart from the allegations made by prisoners who had tried to escape or were considered to pose other risks to security. Indeed, the director of Abomey Prison commented that there was no physical torture at the prison, but that the overcrowding produced “a kind of torture”, since prisoners were not able to sleep properly. By letter of 7 November 2008, the authorities informed the SPT that “corporal punishment does not occur in prisons except between detainees, to which prison authorities are not witness, but that nonetheless and in order to prevent this type of punishment it is envisaged to: sensitise staff working in prisons; recruit specialised staff to oversee prisons; reduce the number of prisoners pro rata to the number of staff tasked with overseeing them; sanction staff and detainees who use corporal punishment; and reinforce existing mechanisms to allow detainees to bring complaints against such ill-treatment.” 286.The delegation heard numerous allegations of ill-treatment in the form of violence among prisoners in the context of the self management system observed in Cotonou and Abomey Prisons (see further section III.B.7). The delegation heard from various prisoners that they feared violence from other prisoners. There were reportedly tensions between certain groups of prisoners, often concerning drugs in the prison and frictions between Benin prisoners and some foreign national prisoners, particularly from neighbouring states. 287.When the state deprives a person of liberty, it becomes responsible for that person’s safety. The obligation includes protecting that person from other people in custody. Lack of such protection is a failure in the duty of care, even though managing inter-prisoner violence can be extremely difficult. Since staff at both prisons was not in control of the prisons, they were unable to ensure prisoner safety against inter-prisoner violence. This requires management to develop a clear policy on dealing with inter-prisoner violence and staff to be properly trained and prepared to work in close contact with prisoners, to be vigilant for the signs of conflict before escalation and to take appropriate action when needed. The SPT recommends that prison authorities develop their policy on managing inter-prisoner violence, including significantly increasing staff numbers and conducting staff training, which should focus on building and maintaining positive relations among prisoners, as well as between staff and prisoners: the dynamic security approach to prison work. 288. The SPT further recommends that the authorities undertake a fundamental review of the management of prisons so as to ensure that the prison administration is in control and is able to ensure the safety of everyone inside the prison, including their protection from inter-prisoner violence. 11.Prisoners sentenced to death 289.Cotonou Prison is the only prison visited by the delegation holding prisoners under death sentence. At the time of the visit, there were 16 such prisoners. The director reported that the 16 were held together in a unit near the entrance to the prison. This turned out to be a single cell. The director described these prisoners as presenting significant risks, since they had nothing to lose. The director