MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE 149 Comments Maintaining good bodily hygiene is a question of health and of respect toward others and toward oneself. Personal hygiene can also be linked with religious practices that have to be respected. Access to proper sanitation as well as to shower and bathing facilities is essential as a means of reducing the possible spread of illness among detainees and staff. This becomes particularly important if detainees are kept for long periods of times in overcrowded living accommodations. Personal hygiene, and hygiene in the detention premises, must also be looked at from the point of view of the treatment of the detainees by the detaining authorities. To be kept forcibly in poor hygienic conditions is humiliating and degrading. The detaining authorities must supply the articles necessary for persons to maintain bodily hygiene. It is important that the arrangements in place do not humiliate the detainees, for example by obliging to shower in public. Women must receive regularly, and in a manner which respects their sense of intimacy, the usual and necessary hygienic articles for menstruation. If they are accompanied by young children, they should receive additional articles suitable for the children. The frequency of showers must take into account the climate and the level of activities of the persons deprived of their liberty. Reference points ■ Have detainees permanent access to water for washing? ■ How often do persons (working, and not working) have access to bathing facilities? ■ Are the bathing facilities sufficient in number? ■ What is their state of repair and cleanliness? 3