Premises Protected from View Intensive treatment rooms sometimes leave patients to a large extent open to view by medical staff and other patients who go past the room. This infringement is all the more serious in that patients thus affected are not in a state to protect themselves. Thus, in one hospital, in one room, once the door was open, the angle as well as the existence of two small glass windows made it possible to see the patient from the corridor, without even going into the security entrance; it had been specified to the inspectors that the door was of course immediately closed again by members staff who entered. Similarly, the bed, toilet with stainless steel bowl and, on the left, the shower, were, in succession, positioned exactly in line with the door. The toilet and the shower were not surrounded by any enclosure and once again left the patient on view to persons entering the room. In one hospital, the three seclusion rooms of the unit catering for patients hospitalised without consent were equipped with a microphone and video surveillance camera. The monitor screen was located in the nurses’ office; nevertheless, at the time of the inspectors’ visit, the screen was covered with an opaque cover, thus avoiding the possibility of visual access on the part of patients entering the office. A large number of police stations and gendarmeries do not possess dedicated premises for searches. Under these conditions, searches are sometimes conducted in questioning rooms, toilets reserved for persons in police custody, in particular when the cells are occupied, in places of transit (“multipurpose” premises) or in a glass-faced cell and under video surveillance. The same applies in prisons, where the conditions under which strip searches are conducted, after meeting visitors in particular, still do not guarantee the person’s privacy and dignity. They may thus take place in an area separated by a simple low wall, in glass-faced booths or in cubicles lined up alongside each other and opening directly on to a corridor of passage. Provision should also be made in prisons for waiting rooms designed with appropriate dimensions, in order to bring an end to the placement of persons in places of passage which expose them to public view (e.g., the cubicles in which new arrivals are placed and the barred “cages” that can be found around the rotunda of prison wings). Respect for dignity and privacy needs to be protected, including in areas subject to intense surveillance. Generally speaking, the design of premises in which persons deprived of liberty pass through or stay should take care to ensure that the passage, waiting and stays of these persons take place protected from view by persons who do not belong to the service. 1.2.3 Exercising Defence Rights For several years, defence rights have been reinforced and court control of measures of deprivation of liberty has been increasing: presence of lawyers in police custody and in disciplinary committee meetings and de jure control by the liberty and custody judge of decisions of hospitalisation without consent. These changes accordingly call for appropriate architectural designs. Respect for the confidentiality of interviews constitutes part of such measures. It is dependent upon the arrangement of certain adjoining premises and the location thereof. Most gendarmerie facilities, and sometimes those of the police, do not possess premises dedicated to confidential interviews with lawyers and 138