Nevertheless, none of the inspectors present at Marseille felt any hesitation whatsoever about drawing up the report. Indeed, on the one hand, conditions of existence are wretched, because the material setting for living (walls, temperature, dampness, detrimental etc.), which is moreover insufficiently maintained, places persons accommodated in the institution in danger of bodily harm: due to the fact that the activities offered (despite considerable originality and sustained commitment) are very inadequate; due to the existence of violence, particularly between prisoners, in this economy of scarcity, where the smallest good (sometimes even behaviour) is bought and sold; these three factors being closely linked. On the other hand, the state of the prison has been regularly brought to the attention of the authorities for twenty years, by the (European) Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which inspected it twice, by the European Commissioner for Human Rights and, finally, by a commission from the French Senate: all of these inspections led to denunciations of the situation prevailing in the institution, without any significant changes being made in the intervals between them. The improvements carried out there, though indeed real, have not resulted in any amelioration in daily life for staff and prisoners. Furthermore, currently planned improvement work will lead to the demolition (in order to build two modern remand prisons on the same site) of what is, at the present time, the least dilapidated part of this vast complex (the women’s prison). This operation cannot make any sense unless it is combined with the renovation (or reconstruction, a more costly option) of the main building (the men’s remand prison). Any other solution will not change the currently existing unacceptable living conditions, of which most persons with whom the Contrôleur général had exchanges underlined the serious consequences. The recommendations made as a matter of urgency concerning Nouméa were intended to secure the granting of planning permission, refusal of which was preventing the process of rebuilding the prison from going ahead. Those concerning Baumettes prison are intended to lead the authorities to an acknowledgement, at short notice, of the need to include “Baumettes 3”, i.e. the men’s remand prison, in the work to be completed, rather than stopping at the currently planned work. The Contrôleur général will remain very vigilant with regard to this point, amongst others, in the course of the year 2013. 2. Recommendations concerning Inspections The Act of 30th October 2007 places an obligation upon the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté to bring his observations on the inspections conducted, to the attention of the ministers concerned, in particular with regard to the “state, organisation and functioning” of places of deprivation of liberty. The Act provides that, for their part, the ministers shall make known their comments in response to these observations, if they consider this to be useful, or if the Contrôleur général expressly requests them to do so. In practice however, these comments are systematically requested. This kind of approach appeared necessary in order to create a certain dynamism after the completion of inspections, in order to promote the changes called for in the inspection reports. The following details therefore concern the recommendations included in the inspection reports sent to ministers (principally those responsible for Justice, the Interior and Health) 17