38 annual report 2010 ‘It is immediately obvious that conditions in the detention facilities in Greenland – with a few exceptions – are so poor that it must be described as inexcusable. This applies to the inmates’ safety and in this connection also to the special circumstances in relation to surveillance etc. (…). It also applies to the requirement that staying in the rooms must be tolerable. I refer here to the size, light, fresh air supply, sanitary facilities etc. in the rooms. The facts that the same room is sometimes used for several inmates and that people in custody may be confined there for some time of course make the requirements in relation to the standard of the rooms more stringent.’1 After the review of the standard of the detention facilities for intoxicated persons, an extensive building programme was initiated. Partly due to the climate and geographic conditions, it was a complex and costly process. The Ombudsman monitored the process, also to ensure that all 14 detention facilities were included to the necessary extent in the building programme, which lasted several years. As a result of the building programme, the conditions which were formerly open to severe criticism were replaced by detention facilities of a standard largely similar to that of facilities in Denmark. Alongside the building programme, the prisons for convicted persons and most of the detention facilities in Greenland for intoxicated persons were inspected. At the inspections, a large number of additional problems were revealed and these were resolved on an ongoing basis. In bullet point form, they included: –– suicide risk due to the cell layout –– serious cold issues –– breach of silence –– lack of access to the open air –– conditions for women inmates open to criticism –– very inadequate report preparation –– placing of monitors (associated with television surveillance) in publicly accessible locations –– inadequate testing of fire alarm –– kitchen sink and kitchen table in the same room as toilet 1 Parliamentary Ombudsman Report for 1990, pp. 90-101