Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism for 2016 that are poor or live far away, whereas others mention poor conditions under which visits take place as the reason. Only very few prisoners on remand who have children under 14 years of age, are visited by them. As a reason for this, some mention that they are on bad terms with their mother, some consider that it would be a traumatizing experience due to the fact that conditions under which visits take place are very poor, whereas others are ashamed and do not want their children to know that they are in prison. On average, they receive three visits a month, whereas the satisfaction rate regarding the manner in which visits take place, is 2.5 (out of 5). They are mostly dissatisfied with the manner in which visits are organized as well as with technical conditions. However, at the same time, most of them express their contentment as for the manner of conduct on the part of judicial police officers during visits. Some prisoners on remand emphasize that visitors, among whom are usually children and older people, are left to queue outside the prison entrance in inadequate conditions in the sun or pouring rain, waiting for their turn to make a visit, which is for example the case in prisons in Varaždin and Rijeka. They all complain that length of visits is too short, that visits, except for those involving children, are closed, i.e. visitors are separated by a screen, and that great number of visitors end up yelling. In such circumstances, it is impossible to ensure a sufficient degree of privacy either. Prisoners on remand are bothered by the lack of direct contact with visitors, especially their wives. Even though Ordinance on House Rules in Remand Prisons prescribes that prisoners are allowed a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of one hour visits, they are rarely allowed to last for longer than 15 minutes. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the possibility of allowing longer visits and granting consent more frequently to prisoners for receiving visits and establishing direct contact with the visitor. For example, Varaždin County Prison has granted all prisoners on remand who do not receive visits from their children, the right to two open visits a month, where direct contact is enabled and there is no screen. Visits by children younger than 14 years of age usually last for up to 30 minutes and take place in a special room, where direct contact between the parent and child is allowed, with the exception of prisons in Zagreb and Rijeka. In Zagreb, children’s visits take place in the same room as those made by adult family members, without them being portioned by a glass, which does not necessarily allow close contact; similarly, in Rijeka, due to shortage of judicial police officers, children’s visits do not take place in a specially designed room adapted to children, but in the room for adult visitors. All penal institutions should provide the possibility for visits by children younger than 14 to take place in a specially designed room adapted for accommodating children. Accessibility of prisons to disabled persons Most penal institutions that we visited in 2016 in collaboration with Disability Ombudswoman, are situated in inaccessible buildings, where prison departments are located on different floors connected by a staircase. 18