–7– e. Humanitarian assistance 64. Certain specific categories of particularly vulnerable prisoners can be identified. Prison health care services should pay especial attention to their needs. i) mother and child 65. It is a generally accepted principle that children should not be born in prison, and the CPT's experience is that this principle is respected. 66. A mother and child should be allowed to stay together for at least a certain period of time. If the mother and child are together in prison, they should be placed in conditions providing them with the equivalent of a creche and the support of staff specialised in post-natal care and nursery nursing. Long-term arrangements, in particular the transfer of the child to the community, involving its separation from its mother, should be decided on in each individual case in the light of pedopsychiatric and medico-social opinions. ii) adolescents 67. Adolescence is a period marked by a certain reorganisation of the personality, requiring a special effort to reduce the risks of long-term social maladjustment. While in custody, adolescents should be allowed to stay in a fixed place, surrounded by personal objects and in socially favourable groups. The regime applied to them should be based on intensive activity, including socio-educational meetings, sport, education, vocational training, escorted outings and the availability of appropriate optional activities. iii) prisoners with personality disorders 68. Among the patients of a prison health care service there is always a certain proportion of unbalanced, marginal individuals who have a history of family traumas, long-standing drug addiction, conflicts with authority or other social misfortunes. They may be violent, suicidal or characterised by unacceptable sexual behaviour, and are for most of the time incapable of controlling or caring for themselves. 69. The needs of these prisoners are not truly medical, but the prison doctor can promote the development of socio-therapeutic programmes for them, in prison units which are organised along community lines and carefully supervised. Such units can reduce the prisoners' humiliation, self-contempt and hatred, give them a sense of responsibility and prepare them for reintegration. Another direct advantage of programmes of this type is that they involve the active participation and commitment of the prison staff. iv) prisoners unsuited for continued detention 70. Typical examples of this kind of prisoner are those who are the subject of a short-term fatal prognosis, who are suffering from a serious disease which cannot be properly treated in prison conditions, who are severely handicapped or of advanced age. The continued detention of such persons in a prison environment can create an intolerable situation. In cases of this type, it lies with the prison doctor to draw up a report for the responsible authority, with a view to suitable alternative arrangements being made.