7 detainees, unless they have been segregated from them under court orders. An encouraging sign is that plans are afoot to create day rooms where detainees will spend a certain part of the day together. In most cases, detainees are not allowed to work or to participate in social and cultural activities. In addition, provisions have not been made to ensure their physical activity, especially in bad weather. With the exception of the District Prison in Belgrade, detainees are not allowed to receive visits by spouse, children and other close persons in separate rooms. In Conclusions 72. of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia of 23 October 2014 states the following: “With regard to the findings of the Protector of Citizens that as a rule detainees do not have an opportunity to spend free time during the day outside their cells in communal rooms with other detainees in cases where no court-ordered contact restrictions apply; that in most cases they do not have an opportunity to do productive work, n or are they included in social and cultural activities; that detainees are not grouped together according to the type of criminal offence of which they are indicted, the National Assembly orders the Administration for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice to improve treatment of detainees, i.e. to allow them to exercise all their rights in accordance with the applicable regulations and standards”. Detained women are still placed in prison detention units across Serbia. Due to the relatively small number of women per detention unit, some of them are de facto placed in solitary confinement while in detention, often for extended periods. Although in the penal enforcement system isolation/solitary confinement is a special/disciplinary measure of a strictly limited duration, it currently seems to be the norm for some female detainees, which speaks volumes of the inadequacies of the detention system for women. In Conclusions 72. of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia of 23 October 2014 states: “With regard to the assessment of the Protector of Citizens that women in detention are mostly and commonly isolated for long periods because their number in detention units tend to be low, whereas this is meant to be a disciplinary or a special measure of strictly limited duration for men in the penal enforcement system, the National Assembly orders the competent authorities to exercise increased caution with the aim of reducing isolation of female detainees for a long periods during detention”. Large penal and correctional institutions are still overpopulated, three-level bunk beds are still used and in certain institutions there are cases of persons serving prison sentences who sleep on the floor. Efforts have been observed to increase the use of alternative sanctions in order to reduce the burden on the prison capacities. Many facilities4 do not adhere to the principle of communal incarceration. Namely, convicts are not allowed to spend their spare time during the day in communal areas with other convicts; instead, they are isolated in their cells all the time (alone or in small groups). The situation is similar with convicts under increased supervision, because instead of exercising increased supervision of the convicts, this measure mainly includes their isolation. In Conclusions 72. of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia of 23 October 2014 states the following: “With regard to the findings of the Protector of Citizens that many convicts in closed units do not have an option to spend free time during the day in communal rooms with other convicts, including in particular persons under increased supervision, the National Assembly orders the Administration for the Enforcement of Penal Sanctions of the Ministry of 4 The special unit of the Penal and Correctional Institution in Požarevac for organised crime sentences, the newly-built Penal and Correctional Institution Belgrade in Padinska Skela, VII pavilion of the Penal and Correctional Institution in Požarevac, II pavilion of the Penal and Correctional Institution in Niš and also numerous district prisons.