In the light of inspections of police custody facilities, in police stations and gendarmeries, videoconferencing is used for extensions of police custody when the court of first instance is not located in close proximity; for minors, videoconferencing is used in an exceptional manner when transport presents major difficulties. These provisions are satisfactory, on the condition that the exception does not become the rule. 3. Action taken in response to visits overall Apart from specific cases, the year 2014 was marked by the end of the 1st round of visits to prisons, young offenders’ institutions (CEF), speciallyequipped hospitalisation units (UHSA), interregional secure hospital units (UHSI), units for difficult psychiatric patients (UMD), detention centres for illegal immigrants (CRA) and waiting areas (ZA) and the beginning of the second round of visits for some of the above. These second visits have enabled changes to be ascertained (for example, improvement of living conditions for detainees and reduction of the number of places in the CRA of Nice, creation of premises for the SPIP in the remand prison of Tours and renovation of the visiting rooms in the long-term detention centre of Joux-la-Ville) as well as the absence of change as far as certain points are concerned, with regard to structural considerations in particular, due to a lack of financing (for example, suspension of the construction of family lounges in the long-stay prison of Poissy and of family life units and family lounges in the long-term detention centre of Joux-la-Ville, as well as the renovation of cells in the remand prison of Tours without installation of any electrical sockets or hot water supply), and even deterioration (living areas of the CRA of Mesnil-Amelot). The second visit to the CEF of Fragny led the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté to immediately refer the latter to the Minister of Justice, who conducted an inquiry, of which the conclusions led to the closure of the institution (cf. § 3.1). Second visits may occur in periods of special activity and sometimes lead to surprising conclusions. One visit to a CEF in the month of August, thus made it possible to ascertain that the teaching staff were on holiday, while minors were present, sometimes for a period of time coinciding with that of the school summer holidays. The first visits to certain types of institutions, such as police stations, gendarmeries and hospitals catering for patients without their consent have not yet been completed. As far as gendarmeries are concerned, the Contrôle Général notes that the findings sent after visits, which are intended to ensure compliance with the inter partes principle, scarcely received any response. In 2014, the Contrôle Général only received two responses from units of the national gendarmerie visited during or prior to the year 2014. No observations were received from the Minister of the Interior in 2014 with regard to the inspection reports concerning these units. By way of comparison, in 2013, the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté received five responses from gendarmeries and six ministerial responses. Moreover, certain observations appear in a recurrent manner in the reports sent to the ministers concerned. Once again, it is necessary to recall some of them here. Persons placed in police custody in the secure rooms of gendarmeries are not “held in police custody” during the night, in the sense that no staff are present in an uninterrupted manner in the premises, from the time of closure of the offices at the end of the afternoon until their reopening the following morning. Provision is made for surveillance rounds to check that persons placed in cells are alright, but remain insufficient. A permanent presence should be 31