repaired. There will then remain the young offenders’ centre and the women’s remand prison, for which the order and conditions of work will not be without significance (in particular for mothers with children, with regard to appropriate accommodation on a temporary basis89). It is well-known that these operations, which for the most part consist of bringing old or relatively old buildings90 into line with the habitability norms fixed for institutions built under recent major construction programmes, are demanding and expensive. Apart from the improvements that are thereby made, it may be hoped that this work will also put an end to the serious and continual disorders affecting daily life: in the case of Fleury-Mérogis, the cold reigning in cells in the winter (particularly on the lower floors) and the invasion of bugs which the management, in spite of its efforts, had been unable to resolve for years. The renovation work constitutes a paradox, insofar as, although it remedies certain difficulties, it is far from providing solutions to other relatively serious problems, as pointed out above with regard to Baumettes. At Fleury-Mérogis, much of the inertia noted in the report will in no way be resolved by the work since it is not linked to the state of the buildings (the paralysing mode of organisation of movements; the existence of certain “decentralised” departments in the building fans while others remain centralised; the lack of provision of advice on the part of the service for rehabilitation and probation; the number of prisoners per passageway, which is out of all proportion to the number of prison officers etc.). Administrative practices may even constitute steps backward. Between two inspections conducted by the Contrôle Général at the prison for minors (EPM) of Quiévrechain, the management of the prisons administration department stopped assigning officers recruited “by profile” and special motivation to EPMs and brought traditional rules of transfer into play, applicable to all jobs. This trivialisation of the special character of such positions is to be regretted, and is manifested by a risk of lowering the quality of supervision of imprisoned children. In the third place, it is once again necessary to highlight the immediate consequences to which each inspection can give rise, when local or regional solutions can be found in order to resolve the shortcomings noted. The example of the open prison of Corbeil is typical in this regard. The most serious shortcomings in terms of fitting-out and operation where rapidly resolved at two levels: 89 90 - on the one hand the head of the institution (who had only recently arrived at the time of the inspection) immediately took the required protective measures (closing of a dormitory which was unfit for habitation and dangerous) and implemented undertakings made (opening of a sports hall), in addition to the attention given to deficiencies revealed by the behaviour of certain officers; - on the other hand, in response to the report the director of the interregional department of prison services concerned quickly announced both a budget for the repair of certain premises (showers, controlled mechanical ventilation of cells, wiring for the putting in place of previously non-existent television receivers, additions to the fitting out of the exercise yards) as well as management measures (drawing up of an inter partes inventory and statement of the condition of cells at the time of arrival and when finally vacating them, new procedures for the notification of “incidents” to the State Prosecutor’s Office etc.). It will therefore be necessary to renovate the young offenders’ centre before the women’s remand prison. It is recalled that the remand prison of Fleury-Mérogis was opened in 1968. 79