BAUMETTES, MARSEILLE (URGENT RECOMMENDATIONS) front-line warders) but working conditions are responsible for a high level of absenteeism - between 1'600 and 1'900 man days per month (2.6 days per person) are thus lost, increasing the load on those who are present. Sometimes there is just a single warder to handle a complete floor (around two hundred prisoners). In these conditions, certain services are simply not maintained. 10/ This is even more the case since the establishment’s initial operating budget was significantly reduced in 2012 compared with 2011 (-7.2%). As certain expenses cannot, by their nature, be reduced, the provision of certain services is compromised. The sum under the heading of “prisoners’ hygiene and cleanliness” thus dropped from 72'323 euros to a budget of 30'000 euros (-58%). The major expense item for the prison, “supplies and general works”, went from 284'611 euros in 2011 to 180'000 euros in 2012 (-36.7%). The Marseille Baumettes prison, being one of the rare institutions in the region under public management, suffers from the fact that most of the others are under private management and, naturally, the outside private service providers have to be paid according to their contract terms. 11/ Budget restrictions offer a partial, but not complete, explanation for another characteristic of the institution - the dearth of activities on offer to prisoners. Paid occupations are limited. Although the vocational training courses are well designed, they concern relatively few people. At the time of the visit there were nine people in the workshops, and in general there are no more than a few dozen. Then there remain the ‘auxiliary service workers’ who are paid and who may benefit from being assigned to a wing that is less dilapidated than the others. But here again, budget restrictions have reduced the number of positions available (from 204 to 169) and the average pay per person (from 214 to 169 euros per month). Those who are offered such jobs (the ‘auxies’ for auxiliaries) are selected by the senior staff based on management criteria and not on criteria concerning the prisoner’s skills or needs. In addition, it is no doubt necessary to pay to be granted such a privileged status: “the auxies recruit the auxies”. As for sport, there are only two qualified instructors - there were others who have left but who have not been replaced. Five warders thus act as instructors but can at any time be called away to cover for absent colleagues or other reasons (during the visit a prisoner set fire to objects in his cell and one of these ‘temporary instructors’ was called to help another warder deal with the problem). In such conditions, the 145