The Controller General recommends better provision of information to prisoners concerning the precious aid that they can obtain from legal information and advice access points and extension of the latters’ areas of authority. 3.5 Passage of Information from Inside Prisons to the Outside Friends, relations and families are to a large extent overlooked by the present administration as far as information is concerned, except in the field of visits. Examples of provision of information to families about the organisation of life in prison are rare. The Contrôle Général recommends the provision of information to families about conditions of detention and daily life in prison, which could contribute to reducing legitimate fears and anxieties. Such information could be provided in written form, or in the shape of meetings (a method used by certain heads of institutions). This is obviously an element which could enhance the life of institutions to the benefit of prisoners and their families, as well as prison staff. The administration has left a part of the distribution of such information to the associations that run family reception facilities at visiting times. The latter fulfil this task with very great conscientiousness; however the administration cannot for this reason exonerate itself of all responsibility in this regard. 4. Access to Citizenship Still in the Course of Development 4.1 The Difficulty of Access to Voting Rights The question of voting rights is addressed under article 30 of the Prisons Act, which sets out the option for prisoners who do not have a personal legal place of residence to elect domicile at the prison for the exercise of their civic rights and specifies that a proxy procedure shall be put in place before each ballot. The possibility of prisoners in entrusting their proxy votes to members of associations working in prison has already been mentioned in the Annual Report for 2012. The Contrôleur Général referred this point to the Director of the Prisons Administration Department on 1st February 2012. On 13th April 2012 the latter replied that not only does article D.221 of the code of criminal procedure allow members of associations working in prisons to be proxies but, moreover, proxy forms are to be drafted by the prisoners themselves, without any action on the part of the prison administration or through the person of senior law-enforcement officers. However, in the course of their visits, the inspectors have noted that in spite of the fact that information is often properly distributed with regard to the practical terms of voting in the periods before elections, the number of prisoners who voted directly – which requires the obtainment of a temporary release – or by proxy remained extremely small. They were provided with numerous testimonies concerning the difficulties of obtaining temporary release or appointing a proxy. Moreover personal documents such as voting cards and identity cards are in general placed in storage or entrusted to the registry; it sometimes happens that reissuing thereof is refused requires a considerable waiting period which, even if temporary release authorisation is granted at short notice, rules out the effective possibility of voting. 95