NOUMÉA PRISON (URGENT RECOMMENDATIONS) act as shelving. The communal sections benefit from very little natural light and are generally in an extremely untidy state caused by the overcrowding. The toilet area is in the central part and there is clear evidence of damp from the leaking sanitary installations. There is no possibility for single occupation of cells. At the time of the visit, sixty individuals were accommodated in this section, designed for thirtytwo people. 3.4/ The partial release section is a unit similar to those in the longterm detention centre. Five door-less rooms of less than 6m², each containing two or three bunk beds without a ladder, adjacent to the toilet from which they are separated by a low barrier one metre high. Various fabric materials have been stretched across the doorways and in front of the toilet. Four cells with two beds each have been added in metallic structures similar to those used temporarily on construction sites. At the time of the visit, for a theoretical capacity of nine there were eighteen people accommodated here. At the end of the building there is an area for ablutions with a single zinc washbasin and two shower cubicles, none of which has hot water. In the middle of the unit there is a space, taking the whole width of the building, which serves as a ‘common room’. It is furnished with a large table and a metallic sink. There is also the the only television as well as a hammock and two mattresses which have been removed from another room, which is now used as the toilet by all the prisoners. 4/ The punishment and solitary confinement cells are in a quite disgusting state. At the end of each cell there is the ‘toilet corner’: the walls are abominably filthy with excrement and marks of damp, and the toilet bowls are indelibly stained. In the solitary confinement cells showers are taken with no protection on the floor although the ‘cubicle’ is fully contiguous with the squat toilets. Sewage smells are particularly strong and persistent. The cells are frequently flooded. There are almost no activities available: there is no workshop employment and the only vocational training on offer attracts no more than a dozen people. In the remand prison, exercise sessions are for just half an hour per half day, which means that prisoners spend between 22 and 23 hours a day confined to their cells. The poor state of the sports field - uneven and full of stones - causes frequent injuries, especially since most of those who use it have no financial resources and so play either barefoot or wearing just flip-flops. 115