E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2 page 58 significant number of temporary detention centres do not comply with requirements of Federal Law No. 103-FZ of 15 July 1995 “On Detention of Suspects and Individuals Accused of Commission of Crimes.” Despite the measures undertaken to renovate and rearrange temporary detention centres many of them are in a poor condition, located in unsuitable buildings under the authority of the Ministry of Interior. Neither the federal nor regional budgets allocate funds for their reconstruction. The most typical violations affecting the health of people held in custody are: overcrowding, lack of water and electricity, poor means of personal hygiene, poor ventilation, and an absence of exercise areas. Lengthy terms of detention in temporary detention centres are sometimes are used as a means of pressure or punishment. In the temporary detention centre of the Kortkerossky Regional Police Department, among other things: not all detainees are provided with beds, so they are forced either to sleep in shifts, or to sleep sitting or lying on the floor; inmates have to sleep on their beds without bed sheets, wearing the clothes they were wearing at the time of detention; there are no showers; there is no cold or hot water in the cells; inmates are forced to use filthy cans because there are no toilets in the cells; walls and ceilings of the cells are covered in dirt and soot; the sole source of lighting in a cell is a 40 watt bulb; the cell temperature never rises above 5 to 10 degrees because of poor heating and the absence of glass on the windows; the infirmary lacks medicine; and there are insufficient spoons and mugs at meal times. Concerning women and adolescents held in the temporary detention centre of the Kortkerossky district: they are transported to court handcuffed; up to eleven persons may be held in a small cell; detainees sleep on a bare, wooden floor without any bedding; walls may be covered in frost; there is one small barred window in the cell near the ceiling; a bulb behind the window provides lighting; inmates are taken out of the ward in the morning and in the evening to use the toilet, otherwise there is a can in the cell which serves as a urinal; there is no soap, towels, toilet paper, or hot water in the cell; and inmates are given food once per day. In 2004, representatives of the Perm Regional Human Rights Centre inspected ten out of 37 temporary detention centres in their region and found that: none complied with appropriate nutritional requirements; almost none complied with requirements related to health and personal hygiene. Conditions for prisoners serving life sentences in the Russian Federation amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It constitutes imprisonment for the duration of a prisoner’s natural life, and every aspect of their imprisonment has been designed to ensure their isolation from the outside world and other prisoners. Life sentence prisoners serve out their terms of imprisonment on “special regime”, the harshest category of imprisonment in the system of corrective labour colonies. Under the 1997 Punishment Implementation Code, these prisoners, unlike other “special regime” prisoners, who serve their sentences in dorms, are housed in cells, either alone or in the company of one other prisoner. They exercise together in a separate enclosed yard outside their cell for 90 minutes each day, and are given work assignments to do inside a separate workshop. The money they earn on work assignments can be spent each month on items from the prison kiosk. Work is however not always available, so prisoners without work have no way of occupying their time and have no self-generated source of income. These prisoners are entitled to study, but may not take part in education classes with other prisoners, studying instead in their cells on their own. Prisoners serving life sentences face major difficulties in maintaining contact with loved ones. Whereas prisoners sentenced to milder regimes are sent to colonies in their home region, this provision does not apply to prisoners on “special regime”, according to Article 73(3) of the Punishment Implementation Code. Life sentence prisoners are entitled in principle to have a three-hour visit twice per year and to receive one parcel and one small package per year. The sudden influx of prisoners sentenced to terms on “special regime” since executions stopped in 1996 (i.e. either sentenced to 25 years or life), put