places (one or two) in women’s “wings”. However, overall, no significant shortcomings were noted. On the other hand, three factors are more tricky to implement and give rise to difficulties. The first of these involves the prison regime applicable to mothers and their young children. On the one hand, it is senseless to apply the same level of precaution to them as to ordinary prisoners: why install gratings on the cell widows, at the risk of submerging the latter in permanent half-light? Insofar as possible, excessive visibility of instruments of constraint should be avoided (grilles in passageways). On the other hand, how far should mothers and their children (who are not prisoners) be separated from the rest of the prison? Childbirth means profound solitude for the mother, who is separated from her companions (they take exercise alone for example), except insofar as there are other mums in the “mothers-children” wing. The second concerns the mother’s resources. Prison material assistance consists of covering a minimum of costs (food). The mother has to “canteen”11 baby hygiene products, for example. Yet, very often, whether willingly or not, she is no longer able to work and no longer has means of her own. She can claim benefits from the social security office, but these are sometimes delayed or not applicable (foreign nationals without residence permits). For this reason the third aspect, concerning relations between the mother-child couple and the outside, is decisive. Ties with the father (if they exist) need to be ensured, in the name of the right to respect for family life; as well as with the rest of the family. The health and education of the child need to be protected. Finally, preparations need to be made for the time when the child will leave the prison on reaching eighteen months of age (if the mother is not yet released). For this reason the existence of such young children in prison presupposes close liaison with the health and social authorities, including the public healthcare institutions and territorial authorities (French communes and departments) in particular. On this point, the realities vary widely from one prison to another. Positive experiences exist, but it is up to the administration to organise the distribution thereof and bring such practices into general use. The future of these children and, therefore, at least in part, that of their mothers, depends upon it. 2. The Recommendations contained in the Inspection Reports sent to Ministers The Act (article 9, first paragraph) places an obligation upon the Contrôleur Général to inform the ministers concerned of his observations at the end of each inspection. The ministers may make comments in response to these observations whenever they deem necessary or when the Contrôleur Général expressly requests. From the outset, the habit was established, on the one hand, of not sending the observations alone to the executive, but also the report recording the inspection on which the latter are based; and on the other hand, of systematically requesting that the ministerial authorities make known their point of view. For this reason each inspection is followed, sometimes after a long interval12, by the sending of two separate documents to the ministers concerned: the inspection report itself, the 11 “Cantiner”, that is to say to buy from outside using their own resources. Since 2008, the number of inspections conducted, the obligations arising from the drafting of the documents and the process of inter partes exchanges with the institution, followed by the double proofreading of the reports, have regularly led to lengthening of the time required for completion of the procedures. The reports for inspections 12 18