The architectural design of premises in which persons deprived of liberty live or pass through – secure facilities of courts, police stations and gendarmeries, secure rooms of general hospitals, intensive treatment rooms in psychiatric hospitals, new arrival and punishment wings in prisons – needs to reconcile security requirements with those of the captives being able to conduct their rudimentary activities and the guards being able to carry out the procedural acts in compliance with the rights of dignity, privacy and confidentiality. 1.2.1 Maintaining Bodily Hygiene The material conditions of imprisonment do not always enable captives to meet their basic requirements with regard to hygiene under conditions which protect their dignity, because the necessary premises – shower rooms, bathrooms – are not accessible to them or because the conditions of access and use thereof are such that they intrinsically infringe their privacy and dignity. Ease of Access to Bathrooms Apart from the fact that a certain number of them are collective, hospital rooms only rarely contain full bathroom facilities. The inspectors noted that in many situations provision was made for nothing more than a sink, which was not always concealed by a screen. In certain rooms, patients only have slop pails at their disposal. Seclusion rooms – whether of recent or old design – often do not have bathroom facilities, and toilets in particular. The latter are replaced by bedpans, urinals or pails etc. In one recent institution, the doctors had criticised the absence of direct access between the room and shower room, for which provision had not been made: according to them, apart from infringing upon the patient’s dignity, slop pails could present a danger for the latter – there had been an occurrence of a patient tripping over the pail in the night – and for the medical staff – another patient had thrown the pail and its contents at a member of staff. Police custody cells are not all equipped with toilets. In this situation captive persons have to ask to be able to go out in order to use the toilets, which are sometimes located outside of the secure zone. When there are bathroom facilities inside the cells, they often consist of basins level with the floor, without any pan, particularly unsuitable for women and persons with restricted mobility. In any case, collective cells are never equipped with toilets. Similarly, neither are court jails (individual cells and collective cells) always equipped with bathroom facilities and a water tap. It was also noted in the accommodation areas of certain detention centres for illegal immigrants, that the detainees’ rooms did not contain a separate bathroom area. Numerous court jails are located in the basement, comprising individual cells and collective cell. In fact, characteristic features of the latter are the absence of any view of the exterior, as well as the absence of ventilation, heating and any facilities for washing. Although prison cells are always equipped with a toilet and sink, which are essential for confinement, in certain prisons, the toilet bowl is placed in a corner of the cell, devoid of any partition. When partitions are present, they are often inadequate or partial. In the oldest institutions, the inspectors ascertained that in some cases the partitions do not go up to the ceiling, in others sheets or curtains serve as doors, while elsewhere (due to poorly-designed partitioning) the bathroom surface area is so narrow that the doors, or whatever serves in place of the latter – in most cases double doors –, have to be left open when the facilities are being 135