OPINIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE FRENCH CGLPL particularly from those who are on short sentences and those from a fragile social environment, such that requests from this population often go unanswered within a reasonable time scale. Consequently, there is less and less real understanding of the individuals concerned. Secondly, they are unable to take any positive initiatives with the targeted population (except in the case of a ‘new arrivals’ procedure - where that exists) and the prisoners concerned therefore see no effective social support offered. The social support offered to the majority of prisoners is today defective. It is recommended that the quality of this social element be restored. This will require more staff, a sustained effort to listen within the establishment (recommendation  3) which applies also to rehabilitation and probation counsellors, better appreciation of personal factors in the committees dealing with sentencing issues and a proper response to the daily preoccupations of all prisoners, without exception. It is also recommended that, as for the management personnel, rehabilitation and probation counsellors spend more time on site so as to be able to respond to requests and to implement (as well as monitor) the socio-educative and cultural activities that interest the largest possible number of prisoners. 14