-39 Large capacity dormitories – units containing all or most of the facilities used by prisoners on a daily basis, such as sleeping and living areas as well as sanitary facilities – are also often identified as factors conducive to violence. STANDARDS IN FOCUS According to CPT, ‘Large-capacity dormitories inevitably imply a lack of privacy for prisoners in their everyday lives. Moreover, the risk of intimidation and violence is high. Such accommodation arrangements are prone to foster the development of offender subcultures, and facilitate the maintenance of the cohesion of criminal organisations. They can also render proper staff control extremely difficult, if not impossible; more specifically, in case of prison disturbances, outside interventions involving the use of considerable force are difficult to avoid. With such accommodation, the appropriate allocation of individual prisoners, based on a case by case risk and needs assessment, also becomes an almost impossible exercise.’66 The CPT has thus consistently recommended moving away from this type of accommodation towards smaller units to be accompanied by measures to ensure that prisoners spend a reasonable part of their day engaged in purposeful activities outside their living units. The EPR go beyond this and explicitly state that ‘prisoners shall normally be accommodated during the night in individual cells’, and an exception to this rule may only be required if this is in the own interest of the prisoners.67 Existing prison architecture along with other factors may make it difficult to accommodate prisoners in single cells. However, the requirement of accommodation in single cells should be taken into account for new prisons. 3.2.3.2. Prison regime and purposeful activities The activities and opportunities offered to prisoners are as important in preventing violence as security and safety measures or material conditions. 66. CPT/Inf(2001)16-part, § 29. 67. EPR, Rule 18.5; see also Mandela Rules, Rule 12; European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC), Council for Penological Co-Operation (PC-CP), Revised Commentary to Recommendation CM/ Rec(2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on the European Prison Rules (2018) PC-CP (2018) 1 rev 2, 12-13. Monitoring Prison Violence