No police custody facilities inspected have special facilities for this purpose, nor do detention centres for illegal immigrants. In prison, cells for “persons with reduced mobility” have often been designed, but often with makeshift means and few of them are really satisfactory241. In addition, movements often involve the use of stairs – in the absence of the possibility of using goods lifts – except when such persons are assigned to the ground floor, which is sometimes that of the so-called closed regime242. The question requires cumbersome arrangements, which can only be designed at the time of elaboration of construction plans. Special attention is needed with regard to access to the health unit in particular. Protection of Children As rule, adults and minors are separated within prisons: minors are accommodated “in specialised prisons for minors and children’s wings of remand prisons and institutions for convicted prisoners” of which the list is fixed by order of the Ministry of Justice243. On the one hand, the very concept of “children’s wings” within prisons catering for adults is not without raising difficulties. Very often the need to provide specific premises catering for minor prisoners was not taken into account when remand prisons were built. It is common for the so-called minors’ wing to consist of no more than a few cells, often located on the ground floor in order to separate them to a certain extent from the rest of the prison. The separation of these cells – or even wings – from the other parts of remand prisons is far from being perfect; many facilities are shared (for example the health unit) and it is difficult to avoid contact between adults and minors at the time of movements within prisons, even in very recent buildings. Accordingly, the creation and arrangement of accommodation wings for minors in institutions principally housing adults needs to be reviewed. On the other hand, although this separation is not strictly applied for boys, it is not applied at all in the case of girls. Minors’ wings being exclusively occupied by boys, girls in most cases find themselves accommodated in wings reserved for adult women, without any other arrangement in view of their age. Apart from the fact that they are thus discriminated against as compared with boys, they are sometimes subjected to situations which are harmful for them. The incarceration of girls in women’s wings is contrary to the law: article R.57-9-10 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that “female minor prisoners are accommodated in units provided for this purpose under the supervision of staff of their sex”. It is to be prohibited. Finally, in psychiatric hospitals, the inspectors too often ascertain the presence of minors and even children of less than 15 years of age in units for adults. These measures are taken for reasons of management of beds in case of lack of available space as well as for disciplinary rather than therapeutic reasons. Specific units should be built or arranged to cater for them insofar as needed. 241 On this point see the various different inspection reports of the Contrôle Général and the Annual Report for 2012, p. 65. 242 Cf. section 4 above. 243 Cf. article R. 57-9-9 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 156