NOUMÉA PRISON (URGENT RECOMMENDATIONS) therefore decided to publish the following recommendations, which in no way prevents the usual procedure from following its course - the situation uncovered during the visit to the prison will naturally be the subject of a full report in the coming days, a report that will be sent to the usual authorities and follow the usual procedure. 3/ The way the establishment is run and its current state can be described as follows. Prisoners are crammed into filthy cells where they suffer from chronic overcrowding that is close to 200% in the long-term detention centre and partial release section and reaches 300% in the remand prison. At the time of the visit, there were 438  persons incarcerated and accommodated55 in an institution designed for 218 people.56 3.1/ The remand prison building consists of 12m2 cells accommodating up to six people, whereas the prisons administration norms allow for just two. Each cell has three bunk beds on one side, two bunk beds on the other side and frequently a mattress in between the two sets of beds, simply placed on the filthy, damp floor where rats and cockroaches abound. At the time of the inspectors’ visit, twentyseven of the thirty-four cells that comprise the remand prison section had such a mattress on the floor, giving a total population of 204 for a nominal capacity of sixty-eight places. At night, the person occupying the mattress risks being trodden on by a fellow prisoner getting up to go to the toilet, which is squat type, and situated in a corner of the cell with no possibility of privacy, despite the efforts of the prisoners to hang some fabric around it. The heat inside the cells rapidly becomes unbearable; fans either do not work or are non-existent in some cells, where they are frequently not replaced if the prison management believes that the prisoners are responsible for the damage. The usual practice to combat the excessive heat is to periodically flood the cells. The pipes bringing water to the toilets have been by-passed to provide a shower without the slightest protection for the electrical installations, which are frequently damaged (exposed wires, broken switches). Many washbasins - which only provide cold water - have The prison also handles people under electronic tagging or placed in an external facility. 56 The occupation rate by section was as follows: 300% in the men’s remand prison, 198% in the open detention centre, 188% in the closed detention centre, 100% in the general services section, 61% in the young offenders’ unit, 57% in the women’s prison and 200% in the partial release centre. 55 113