and the circuit of procedures to the prisoner's situation; maintain "legally resident" status for all foreign nationals with a residence permit, except where there is a court-issued prohibition to enter French territory or administrative deportation measure; do not systematically deny foreign prisoners provisional permission to stay). The CGLPL also recommended removing the barriers to legal residents being granted permissions to leave. The Minister of Justice maintains that permissions to leave come under the purview of the judge responsible for the enforcement of sentences. The CGLPL considers that it would be advisable ensuring that courts do not adopt practices systematically requiring compliance with criteria that are not legally binding; it particularly finds, as it had already reported in its 2014 opinion, that "for the formalities bearing on acquiring or renewing residence permits, certain judges responsible for the enforcement of sentences freely grant permissions to leave so that foreign nationals can submit their files to the relevant departments in the prefectures. But others do not, alleging some form of illegality with regard to the individual’s residence situation. However, it is accepted (circular of 25 March 2013) that someone who is incarcerated cannot be regarded as being in an illegal situation vis-à-vis the laws on residence. Above all, a decision not to proceed on such grounds simply means maintaining precisely the situation for which the individual is being penalised". As such, the CGLPL had recommended that the prison rehabilitation and probation counsellors, with the help of the appropriate associations and the citizen's advice centres, be sufficiently versed in the legislation concerning foreign nationals to be able to advise the magistrates on the likelihood of a particular detained foreigner being granted a residence permit. The Minister of Justice explains that, as part of a partnership with the prison administration department, La Cimade is finalising a guide for these counsellors and prison staff on foreigners' rights. She goes on to mention partnerships with the département-level access to law councils and associations who endeavour to provide their services across all institutions. The CGLPL has not observed any improvement since the situation observed back in 2014, however, and therefore upholds its recommendation. Ensure that prison rehabilitation and probation counsellors, with the help of the appropriate associations and the citizen's advice centres, be sufficiently versed in the legislation concerning foreign nationals to be able to advise the magistrates on the likelihood of a particular detained foreigner being granted a residence permit. The CGLPL had recommended encouraging the practice of "voluntary return" conditional release and giving thought to probation schemes that could be completed in the country of origin for prisoners who do not have a right of residence. It also recommended working on the preparation, by the United Nations, of an international agreement on the transfer of convicted persons abroad to serve their sentence, possibly to replace the absence of bilateral agreements (as has been done at European level on the subject of extradition). The Minister of Justice points out that the possibility of pronouncing conditional release subject to voluntary return to the country of origin is provided for in the Code of criminal procedure and describes the measures taken by the prison rehabilitation and probation counsellors, to assist those granted such a release. She stresses, however, that probation schemes in the country of origin are governed by partnerships with each country concerned. The CGLPL recognises these difficulties, which is why it is upholding its recommendations aimed, on the one hand, at developing the measures intended to promote conditional release subject to voluntary return in practice and, on the other hand, to overcome, via a general measure, the 57