48 ANNUAL REPORT 2011 written regulations in this respect. And it is a fact that many prisoners experience many and serious problems in relation to other prisoners. There may be problems between various groups in relation to: –– prisoners from different ethnic backgrounds –– young people –– drug addicts –– foreigners –– prisoners serving sentences for particular crimes (crimes involving children) –– women In a way it is paradoxical that the Act on the Execution of Sentences and the administrative provisions aim to protect prisoners’ rights etc. in relation to the authorities executing their sentence if the reality is that the lives of inmates in state and local prisons are mainly dominated by abuse, threats, etc. by other inmates. These matters attract particular attention in the processing of complaint cases and especially at the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s inspections. Questions are asked about them and the angle is that the authorities are under an obligation to protect particularly vulnerable groups and individuals in prisons. It is, however, extremely difficult for the authorities to prevent abuse, threats, etc. effectively and it is an illusion to believe that the Ombudsman’s inspection activities can reveal and relieve such problems to any significant extent. Nonetheless, the Parliamentary Ombudsman should continue to pay attention to these problems, and so he does during inspections of the institutions of the Prison and Probation Service. In this article, I have chosen to consider the vulnerable group consisting of women. Women in prison In Denmark, there are on average 170 women detained in state and local prisons, corresponding to approx. 5 per cent of all prisoners. As is also the case for male prisoners, the length of their sentences varies greatly, from 7 days to life. There is no separate women’s prison in Denmark. The only women-only prison – the low-security women’s prison in Amstrup with room for 20 prisoners – was