One document read in a remand prison inspected thus mentions “what is authorised: five books from the library and perishable foodstuffs bought in the prison shop before placement in the punishment wing; and what is prohibited: razors in cells, sugar lumps and salt”. Another mentions that the possibility of being visited by representatives of the Défenseur des droits [ombudsman, independent administrative authority charged with defending citizens’ rights in relation to public authorities] and by the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté is maintained during stays in the punishment wing. In the oldest institutions, punishment accommodation areas are often located in places of imprisonment with limited access to natural light and ventilation – sometimes in basements –, which can make them unfit for habitation. Punishment calls are cramped, all the more so since a part of them is used as a security entrance between the door and the grating. The security entrance in general comprises a smoke detector and a lighting unit, which is sometimes the only one in the cell. The grating of the security entrance often contains a hatch in order to allow the person to use an intercom device (or a call button) and the electric switch, when the latter is not exclusively controlled by staff from the exterior. Sometimes the security entrance grating is so thick that it practically prevents visibility of the interior of the cell due to a “wall effect”, which prison officers carrying out night patrols consider to be problematic. Toilets are also sometimes visible from outside via the peephole, which is contrary to respect for the privacy of persons. As for the windows, they are often small, with bars equipped with plates of expanded metal. To repeat the comments made by one person held in a punishment cell in a remand prison, “you do not see daylight inside” due to the security fittings placed around the window and a plastic canopy placed on the external façade, in order to avoid any contact via the widows of the floors above. The windows are not always equipped in order to allow them to be opened from inside the cell; when they are so equipped the mechanism is difficult to use or only opens the window a few centimetres. The electrical lighting is often weak, something about which the persons present complain, in particular when they wish to read. In this type of old institution, the heating system operates by means of pipes, under the same conditions as in the rest of the prison. People placed in these cells suffer all the mo re from the cold since, in general, they spend twenty-three hours a day there. In more recently built institutions, the surface area of cells is in general in the region of 10 m². More natural light enters these cells and the ventilation is better, thanks to sliding windows equipped with panes. In some cases, blocks of glass are used as opaque window panes so that, although light can filter through, it is impossible to see outside. As in the other sectors of the prison, punishment cells also have gratings placed outside. The view from inside the cell may be of a roll of concertina wire placed directly below the window. Although most of them have been refitted in recent years, in general disciplinary cells are equipped in a rudimentary fashion on the basis of standardised norms: a bed which is securely fixed to the ground, covered with a fireproof mattress, a piece of furniture consisting of a shelf and a metal bench, which is also securely fixed, a stainless steel unit comprising a toilet and sink with cold (sometimes hot) water and a switch-controlled cigarette lighter. 121