overlooks a wall 3 m away from window. These limitations are not, after a stay of several months, without effect upon visual accommodation. In a large number of psychiatric hospitals, the window panes of the rooms are made opaque, and for reasons of the security of persons, hinged sections of windows are blocked or their opening limited to about twenty centimetres, “looking out of the window” is impossible. Plate glass windows should be designed in such a manner that they make it possible to “look out of the window”, without any obstacle, and allow the air to enter. It is to be recommended that the windows of rooms and cells should not be placed higher than average shoulder height, their surface area should be adjusted to the orientation of the room, larger when facing north, and to its size. They should be equipped with shutters. Healthy Ventilation and Adequate Heating The quality of ventilation of rooms quite often depends, in the absence of controlled mechanical ventilation, upon the position and operation of windows. When the latter are devoid of hinged sections, or are draught-proofed in order to provide protection against cold, as in old institutions, little or no provision is made for the ventilation of rooms, of which the door by definition remains closed in remand prisons. This situation can cause respiratory disorders and worsen any pre-existing conditions of this kind. The ceilings of cells in old buildings are high. The inspectors have noted heights of 4 m in several institutions, the height of cells sometimes being twice as great as their width in such cases. In general, the windows in these cells, which are sometimes very small, are placed 2 m above the floor, as already mentioned. In such cases, the heating, which is often provided by tube running along the bottom of the narrowest window wall, carrying hot water, is very inadequate and the occupants complain of cold in winter, as well as of humidity, which in certain premises allows patches of saltpetre to develop, due to lack of sufficient ventilation. The humidity is worsened still further when the cell is equipped with a shower, which is only very rarely equipped with a window and whose ventilation is not always properly ensured by controlled mechanical ventilation. In virtually all gendarmerie facilities, the inspectors noted the absence of heating in police custody cells and faulty or even inexistent ventilation systems. Certain customs detention and custody facilities, of very small surface area (4.11 m²), are neither heated nor ventilated. Whatever the captives’ length of stay, provision should be made for the rooms in which they are confined to be of limited height, without being lower than 2.50 m, and equipped with adequate means of heating. Limitation of the Harmful Effects of Noise and Protection of the Right to Rest The privacy of prisoners also presupposes that they are able to engage in an occupation or sleep, without noise from the neighbours or that inherent to the operation of the service preventing them from doing so. The quality of the partitions between the rooms of institutions should ensure sound insulation, which is all the more necessary in so far as the occupants spend long hours in them every day. It is also important that the organisation of external premises and the elements of which they are made (doors, floor coverings) should reduce noise nuisances to a minimum. Similarly, in some cases, although there is an air vent in the bathroom corner, it makes such a noise that the occupants block it up, as was noted in recent detention centres for illegal immigrants, as well as in new prisons. 132