their cell. Such treatment of prisoners is not a solution to the problem and may even be considered degrading. Therefore, the Human Rights Defender asked the General Director of the Prison Service to change the relevant practice. In reply, the General Director of the Prison Service assured that actions aimed at introducing separate lighting of sanitary facilities in cells would be continued, however, efficiency of these actions depends on funds allocated for renovations and modernisation. Recommendations formulated by NPM with regar to the visited units also concerned the issue of separating sanitary facilities in cells with walls and ensuring intimacy for persons deprived of liberty (one pavilion at PDC Warsaw-Grochów, PDC Wrocław, II and III Ward of PDC in Koszalin, pavilion A of PDC in Zielona Góra, cells in residential wards I-IV and VII in Rzeszów-Załęże). Bearing in mind the recommendations of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Strasbourg (CPT) and case law of the European Court of Human Rights40, the National Preventive Mechanism would like to emphasize that the use of an open sanitary facility in a situation where more than one inmate is in the cell, may be considered degrading treatment. As regards living conditions, it was also recommended to equip bunk beds with ladders and safety devices or replace bunk beds with other guaranteeing the safety of prisoners (PDC in Środa Wielkopolska, PDC in Wrocław, PDC in Choszczno, PDC in Koszalin, Prison in Goleniów, Prison in Rzeszów-Załęże). As regards recommendations included in the post-visit report, the directors of units declared that they were planning to modernize bunk beds, if funds are available. They also considered their gradual replacement with new ones with adequate safety devices and ladders. During the visits, NPM employees also drew attention to places where strip searches of inmates are carried out. The lack of a room for carrying out such searches raised reservations of the persons conducting the visit. Strip searches were carried out in empty cells, service rooms, entertainment rooms or behind curtains in corridors, which could not guarantee intimacy during such controls since these rooms were available to third persons (PDC in Gliwice, Prison in Hrubieszów, PDC in Choszczno). The National Preventive Mechanism recommended the separation of rooms for the performance of strip searches. In response, the Director of Pre-Trial Detention Centre in Gliwice informed NPM representatives that by decision of 1 October 2010 additional strip search rooms, guaranteeing intimacy during a strip search, had been designated. On the other hand, the Regional Director of the Prison Service in Lublin indicated that it was impossible to separate such rooms in the Prison in Hrubieszów. However, to avoid the access of third persons to places where strip search is performed, each time the door to service rooms is locked, which makes it impossible for anyone to get in from the corridor, whereas windows are equipped with blinds or curtains, which protect the room from being looked into from the outside. The need to adapt cells and washrooms to the needs of the disabled persons has been found in the visited units. For example, in the External Ward of the Pre-Trial Detention Centre in Choszczno, an isolated shower stand for disabled persons was sectioned off, however, it was not properly adjusted to their needs. The adjustment of the cell for sick prisoners to the needs of disabled persons was recommended at PDC                                                              40 Sentence of 19 April 2001, ECHR 28524/95.