DOC/OS(XXXIII)/324c/I 12 Overall prison capacity is 3,822 places2 , i.e., the overcrowding rate is 33%. This phenomenon is all the more disquieting considering that four additional prisons have been built since 1996 and the number of convictions has diminished3. Omaruru prison was built for 68 inmates, but on the day of the visit there were 182, i.e., an overcrowding rate of 163%. According to the Ministry of Justice, the increase in the prison population cannot be attributed to an increase in criminality, but to a conjunction of factors, none of which would be enough on its own: better access to justice, greater severity on the part of judges and longer sentences, as well as a proliferation of short sentences for petty crimes. Thus, in the year 2000, 81.4% of the prison population was sentenced to less than two years imprisonment. Added to this, there are the dysfunctional Release Boards. These are boards that meet periodically at national and regional level, to decide on the release of certain prisoners based on precise criteria. The conditions for obtaining parole and remissions are so prohibitive that in the end these measures are rarely put into practice. It should also be mentioned that detention on remand is not taken into account when sentence is passed. Only 2.5% of the prison population benefited from parole in the year 2000. There are some measures that could help reduce overcrowding, for example the judges have the discretion to give fines seeming, however, to prefer the sanction of imprisonment. It should be noted that a community service (CS) programme as an alternative to imprisonment will be developed in the years to come for offences that carry a sentence of less than two years. To be effective, any plan to combat overcrowding and the increase of the prison population should combine several kinds of measures: • Pre-sentencing measures: mediation, diversion, suspended sentences with or without probation, judicial control, etc. • Post-sentencing measures: greater use of parole and reductions of sentences, permissions to go out, partial release, etc. Overcrowding has a great many consequences: • insufficiency of rehabilitation programmes; • unsafe conditions of detention (lack of beds, blankets, some inmates sleeping too close to the bathrooms, etc.); • promiscuity and transmission of diseases; • difficulty in keeping the premises clean; • difficult working conditions for staff, in particular lack of specialist and surveillance staff, which has consequences for the time prisoners spend outside their cells and exercising in the open air; • problems with water supplies and cleanliness of sanitary installations; • lack of exercise where space is limited, etc. Since independence, the president has granted presidential pardons on five occasions. These affected 3,757 prisoners, of whom 107 re-offended subsequently. 2 Information on 14 September. Source. Prison Administration 3 Source: Ministry of Justice