date with the Prisons Act in penal institutions as a whole, in particular with regard to items authorised and handed over to prisoners at the time of their placement in punishment cells. Moreover, he asks the prisons administration to take punishment cells of cramped dimensions out of service, in accordance with the recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (annual report 2010), which fix the minimum surface area of living space at 6 m². Improvement work should be undertaken in order to ensure that each punishment cell has adequate access to natural light, possesses a smoke detection and smoke extraction system and is equipped with means of communication with the staff. Similarly, the Contrôleur général wants the facilities of punishment cells to be brought into line with norms; greater vigilance should be given to the maintenance of these premises whose state is sometimes an affront to human dignity. Finally, the Contrôleur général recalls, as he had already recommended in his annual report for 2010 with regard to the maintenance of family relations, that the family and friends of prisoners placed in the punishment wings should not suffer any special restrictions connected to the imposition of disciplinary treatment, with regard to their visiting and relations by means of telephone and letters. *** With regard to “disguised” sanctions imposed through misuse of statutory provisions for disciplinary purposes within penal institutions, the Contrôleur général recommends the establishment of a joint circular from the prisons administration department (DAP) and the judicial youth protection service (DPJJ), specifically fixing the modes of application of these provisions in institutions for minors (EPM). Moreover, the Contrôleur général recommends that, by means of two memoranda for decentralised departments, the prisons administration department (DAP) should establish: - a first reminder note explaining the imperious need to distinguish the fields of application, on the one hand, of article 24 of Act no. 2000-321 of 12th April 2000 concerning the rights of citizens in their relations with the public administrations and, on the other hand, of the disciplinary proceedings resulting from the DAP circular of 9th May 2003 established in application of the said article 24, in order to bring an end to the confusion which reigns in the implementation of these two measures, in particular with regard to decisions concerning dismissals from employment and training, placements under the solitary confinement regime and withdrawal of appliances and correspondence; - a second reminder note specifying that the assignment of prisoners to “closed” sectors, within the framework of differentiated regimes, should not in any case be used as a sanction, this practice being contrary to the spirit of the Prisons Act of 24 th November 2009; Moreover, the Contrôleur général requests that occasional use of the following as disguised sanctions should be brought to an end: - changes of internal assignment and searches of cells; 144