40 annual report 2010 ‘Confinement for a total of 74 days in unfurnished detention room for intoxicated persons A was confined in the detention facilities in (…) for intoxicated persons from 23 May 2007 to 3 August 2007, i.e. 74 days. According to A’s information, which I take as the basis of my assessment of the case, the detention room was only furnished with a mattress on the floor throughout this period. … In my opinion, this circumstance is a matter for severe criticism. In my assessment, I have also attached importance to the very extensive correspondence over a considerable period of time, after the Parliamentary Ombudsman inspections of a number of detention facilities on the west coast of Greenland in 2003 (…), with the Chief Constable of Greenland, the Directorate of Prisons and Probation and the Ministry of Justice concerning the matter of furnishing of detention rooms as well as the meetings held with the Chief Constable of Greenland and representatives of the Directorate of Prisons and Probation and the Ministry of Justice about this issue. Access to the open air ... In its letter of 26 November 2007, the police stated that A was ‘aired’ on eight occasions during the 74-day period. In addition, A had been shopping twice and to the dentist once. … In my opinion, it can be assumed on the available basis with the necessary certainty that on very many of the days when A was confined in the detention facilities, he did not get into the open air and was not offered the opportunity to do so. I consider this extremely regrettable. Constant television surveillance and light for 74 consecutive days ... I must take for my basis that A, when in the detention room, was under constant television surveillance for 74 consecutive days. As I understand it, this also meant that the light was on in the room for 24 hours a day. … In the case of such extraordinarily long confinement, the Chief Constable had the authority to decide that television surveillance should not be carried out and that the light could be turned off at night.’3 RULES ON CONFINEMENT IN DETENTION FACILITIES FOR INTOXICATED PERSONS – OTHER PROBLEMS The Chief Constable of Greenland’s order of the day for ‘Confinement in local prisons and in detention facilities for intoxicated persons, etc.’ has now – after extensive correspondence with the Parliamentary Ombudsman and others – been amended with effect from 1 March 2011 to ensure that there will be no further cases of long-term confinement of non-intoxicated persons in deten3 In June 2011, the Parliamentary Ombudsman initiated an investigation of a (possibly similar) instance of long-term confinement (more than 3½ months) in the detention facilities in Nuuk in 2008.