EN_CPT_AR.book Page 22 Monday, October 25, 2010 5:14 PM CPT General Report 2009-2010 35. Nevertheless, there will be exceptional situations when the rapid publication of a visit report can do more harm than good. A case in point is the publication on 23 December 2009, at the request of the Georgian authorities, of the report on the CPT’s visit earlier the same year to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia. This publication occurred only two weeks after a copy of the visit report had been delivered to the de facto authorities in Sukhumi. The CPT considers that, from the standpoint of human rights protection, it would have been better to give the de facto authorities of the region of Abkhazia a reasonable period to react to the recommendations set out in the visit report before proceeding to publication. The premature publication of the visit report has not facilitated the CPT’s dialogue with the de facto authorities. Selected publications 36. In this section, a closer look is taken at some of the visit reports and government responses published during the last twelve months. Report on the periodic visit to Belgium in September/October 2009 (the state of the prison system, fundamental safeguards during police custody, and the situation in police and court detention facilities) 37. The CPT’s delegation found that the Belgian prison system continued to suffer from the problem of overcrowding, with certain establishments – such as Jamioulx Prison – having an average occupancy level of 150% or more. The Committee has welcomed the “2008-2012 Master Plan for a more humane prison infrastructure”, under which the capacity of the prison estate should be extended by more than 1,500 places. Nevertheless, the report stresses that providing additional accommodation is not likely, in itself, to offer a lasting solution to the problem of overcrowding; it needs to be accompanied by policies aimed at limiting and/or modulating the number of persons being sent to prison. 38. Strikes by prison staff and their negative consequences for prisoners is another major source of concern for the CPT. The report examines in detail the disorder that occurred at Forest and Lantin Prisons in 2009 during strikes at these establishments and which, at Forest, allegedly included acts of serious ill-treatment by police officers standing in for prison staff. Returning to a recommendation already made in 2005, the CPT calls upon the Belgian authorities to introduce without further delay a “guaranteed service” in the prisons sector. 22