OPINIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE FRENCH CGLPL dispensing with the need to determine levels of effectiveness as far as prison is concerned, including with regard to security, justifications which are, all in all, paradoxical in a society in which observed crime is decreasing. A programme of this kind cannot be pursued without reflection on its cost70 and above all about the kind of institutions to which it leads, a difficulty to which the Contrôleur général has already called the authorities’ attention. Public funds should be redirected to the renovation of remand prisons, wherever possible. Only where existing premises do not enable the development of activities pertaining to a prison worthy of the name should the reconstruction of urban institutions of small dimensions be considered. However, the number of prison places that our country intends to have at its disposal indeed needs to be determined in a rational manner and, to this end, a certain number of short and long-term projections need to be made with regard to crimes leading to prison sentences, the length thereof, the use made of pre-trial detention, the scope of reduced sentencing and the place of individual cells in prison. The only justification provided in the impact study for the recent act on the enforcement of sentences was the “average annual level of growth” in the number of custodial sentences observed for the 20032011 period, which constitutes a weak basis.71 In all probability, on the condition of the implementation of the whole of the measures suggested below, it is unnecessary to go much further than the construction programme currently in course of completion, except in the specific cases of certain institutions requiring replacement, in Metropolitan France and overseas. Under these conditions, is it necessary to introduce a numerus clausus, as has been called for, applicable to the system as a whole, The planned public-private partnerships will place a long-term burden upon ministerial operational funding and endanger the Ministry’s adaptation to future changes. 71 The reference to the average number of prisoners in relation to the number of inhabitants (100 out of 100'000) in the countries of the Council of Europe is similarly fragile, France being judged to be below this average (from which it is inferred that the prison population should be increased): this is to forget that, for reasons connected to their history, which is very different to our own, in many Eastern European countries (members of the Council of Europe), the number of prisoners often remains considerably higher, in Russia in particular. 70 124