maintenance of their family ties and specific rehabilitation projects191. Moreover the DAP recommends that the DISP should carry out the orientation of all prisoners if this makes it possible to maintain balance in prisons and fight against overcrowding of remand prisons192. In several remand prisons, the inspectors ascertained that an orientation file is systematically opened when more than one year remains to be served. The inspectors observe that, generally speaking, the orientation file is put together in the institution193 within a period in the order of one to two months. The establishment of the orientation file can, however, be delayed by the period necessary for receipt of personal and/or court documents. Depending on the institution, the opinion of the court is requested by post, by exchange of post with the court of first instance or during sentence board meetings. In order to shorten these waiting periods, some of them pass on orientation files to the DISP without the obligatory court documents194. The time required for handling by Interregional Departments of Prison Services (DISP) vary considerably. Certain institutions, whose number is constantly decreasing, do not possess any procedures enabling them to keep track of the passing on of orientation files. Files that had been forgotten, or even lost within institutions and higher authorities have come to the inspectors’ attention. This is the case of one person, definitively sentenced in June 2011, whose orientation file was passed on to the DISP in July 2012, and of another, convicted in December 2010, who received their assignment decision in March 2012 because “the person concerned’s file was not sent to the correct place”. The Contrôleur Général recommends the standardisation of the periods for putting together and handling orientation files in order to reduce the disparities ascertained. 8.3.2 Imminent Sentence Reductions Article 88 of the Prisons Act provides that a person can be maintained in a remand prison “when they have the benefit of reduced sentencing or are likely to have the benefit of such measures in the near future”195. The prisons administration has drawn two consequences from this: on the one hand, the transfer of the person assigned is to be deferred until the court decision and, on the other hand, making up of an orientation file 191 In certain prisons, the head of the institution possesses delegated authority enabling them to assign convicted prisoners accommodated in the remand wing, with less than two years remaining to serve, to the long-term detention wing of their institution. 192 Circular of 21st of February 2012 concerning orientation of prisoners in penal institutions. 193 The orientation file compulsorily includes opinions from the health unit, the SPIP, the judge responsible for the execution of sentences and of the head of the institution. In general, the opinion of the public prosecutor at the court of first instance is requested. It is then passed on to the territorially competent Interregional Department of Prison Services, or even to the central administration if the assignment decision falls under the latter's authority. 194 The list of documents compulsorily passed on by the public prosecutor's office to the penal institution is fixed by article D .77 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. 195 The circular of 21st of February 2012 concerning the orientation of prisoners in penal institutions specifies that the imminence of reduced sentencing shall be characterised by the passing on to the state prosecutor's office of a sentence reduction proposal within the framework of the simplified procedure provided for under articles 723-19 et seq. of the Code of Criminal Procedure or by the scheduling of an inter partes hearing following an application for reduced sentencing. 122