administration to prevent abuse and/or corruption. The authorities should take immediate steps to ensure that they effectively and fully assume control of the prisons. Under no circumstances should prisoners be in charge of determining and inflicting disciplinary punishments on fellow prisoners. 3.Medical screening on entry as a safeguard against ill-treatment 176.The screening of people arriving from police and gendarmerie custody in prison is of key importance for the prevention of illtreatment by the police or gendarmerie. The entry point into prison is a critical time for detection of any injuries and assessing whether ill-treatment may have occurred. The delegation therefore paid attention to the practice as regards medical screening on entry and the procedures for reporting cases of possible police ill-treatment. In this regard it noted the Ministry of Justice’s assertion that all detainees are examined by the prison health care provider on arrival, as provided for in article 62 of Decree No. 73-293. 177.At Cotonou Prison, the chief medical officer spoke about examining for injuries on arrival at the prison. The delegation examined the recording of the medical screening which, although very summary, included all basic required information. Interviews with detainees confirmed that they were brought before the health care professionals, although this might not be for several hours or even days after their arrival. 178.From the interviews with prisoners at Abomey Prison, the delegation concluded that access to a doctor was problematic in practice, although there was a nurse on duty at the infirmary. There was no medical screening on arrival at the prison, andmany prisoners interviewed indicated that they had not had an opportunity to see a doctor on arrival. The same applied to detainees at Akpro-Missérété Prison. The SPT recommends that all detainees should receive a medical screening on entry to prison, which follows the basic system in place in Cotonou Prison. The SPT recommends that the authorities introduce systematic medical examination of all newly admitted prisoners and subsequently that the right to see a nurse or doctor (or member of the health staff) upon request is duly respected. The SPT also recommends that medical examinations be conducted, and medical records maintained, in accordance with the principle of medical confidentiality; non-medical persons, other than the patient, should not be present. The SPT recommends that medical screening upon admission to prison should include an examination thorough enough to reveal any injuries and to reveal any pre-existing medical conditions that may require new or on-going treatment. It also recommends that the standard medical report be amended to encourage the full recording of any injuries. The form for the medical examination should include (a) medical history, (b) an account by the person examined of any violence, (c) the result of the physical examination, including a description of any injuries and an indication as to whether the whole body was examined, and d) the doctor ’ s conclusion as to consistency between the three first items. Further, the SPT recommends that a procedure be established, with due consideration for medical confidentiality and the consent of the individu al, for all cases of violence/ alleged ill-treatment documented by doctors or other members of the health staff to be reported directly to the Ministr y for Justice and Human Rights. 4.Material conditions (a)Accommodation 179.At the prisons of Cotonou and Abomey, the combination of over-population and the extreme age and dilapidation of the buildings produced extremely poor custodial conditions, as was recognised by the officials in charge of these establishments. Further, the theoretical separation of women from men was in practice not implemented, as women relied heavily on male detainees for access to certain services. Moreover, the delegation noted that, although male adolescent detainees were separated from adults, as provided by law, female adolescent detainees lived with adult women detainees. 180.The conditions were particularly bad in the accommodation units at night, when prisoners were locked in for twelve hours at a stretch (in time with the absence of daylight). The delegation saw with its own eyes on a night visit to Abomey Prison on 23 May 2008 that detainees were obliged to sleep in constant physical contact with at least two other prisoners. The overcrowding resulted in some detainees not being able to lie down to sleep, but having to stand or sit for the twelve hours of lock-up. The delegation measured the temperature in one of the dormitories housing around 100 prisoners as 36 degrees centigrade with a humidity factor of 72 at 23:30 hours. This equates to a heat index of between 51 and 54 degrees centigrade. Such temperatures produce extreme heat stress. The detainees had to use an uncovered plastic bucket as there were no toilet facilities in the locked cells at night. The air was hot, humid, and fetid with human sweat. 181.The delegation also observed that around 150 male prisoners slept outside of the locked buildings in the courtyard at Abomey Prison, a privilege which prisoners reportedly paid for. 182.In the male adolescent detainee unit at Abomey Prison, one adolescent detainee was sleeping under the canopy in the unit’s yard, while the 21 others slept in the one room (measuring 3.48m x 4.74m with a ceiling height of 3.2m). There was no window in the room and when the door was shut, there was no ventilation; there was a ceiling fan to move the air about within the room. The adolescent detainees confirmed that they were locked up for the night at 18.00 hours. Some adolescent detainees slept on the six benches in the room but most slept on the floor. The only other furnishing in the room was a small television provided by UNICEF. 183.Even when material facilities are very poor, their effect on prisoners can be made less acute by the way in which they are used. For example, it was clearly viewed as a privilege to sleep in the yard of the adolescent detainee unit, despite the potential problem of mosquitoes. There was space in the yard for all adolescent detainees to sleep outside, but this option was not used. 184.The women’s quarters at Abomey Prison appeared very cramped, and detainees were locked in at night in two buildings, one of 4m x 4m for 32 women, and the other of 7m x 4m for 33 women. All women slept on the floor on mats, each shared by 3 or 4 other