6 disable the external oversight and supervision by an independent entity, either through conducting a procedure upon filed complaints or upon its own initiative, or via NPM activities. Regarding the mentioned issue, the UN Committee Against Torture stressed in its Concluding Observations of the Second Periodical Report on the Republic of Serbia (item 21.) that the state is obliged to ensure efficient and independent work of the Protector of Citizens and to enable it to exercise its mandate, irrelevant of the fact whether criminal proceedings were instigated or not. Taking into account that the Protector of Citizens is also discharging NPM mandate, it is necessary that competent state authorities enable NPM to smoothly conduct its activities in terms of allowing them to pay visits to all institutions, to access all data and to interview the persons selected by NPM, irrelevant whether there is another procedure conducted by some other state authority. The current accommodation and other living conditions of persons deprived of their liberty are not in many respects in line with regulation and applicable standards, which due to continuity is gaining a character of inhumane or degrading treatment. Current defects in terms of organization and behaviour towards persons deprived of liberty, such as inadequate accommodation conditions, lack or non-implementation of procedures, lack of adequate psycho-social treatment and staff, may, particularly in continuity, lead to inhumane or degrading treatment of persons deprived of liberty. As the NPM had already stressed in its previous reports, prisoners are not allowed to spend the available time during a day outside their cells, in the common premises with the other prisoners with who, there is no prohibition of contact by a court decision. However, the efforts directed towards the improvement of capacities intended for placement of prisoners are encouraging. DP Belgrade planned to form, in each block, separate rooms for daily stay, which would be at the same time used by prisons who do not have prohibited contact. Project design for the construction of a new facility in the DP Leskovac also plans common premises within the detention unit. What still causes problem is the fact that prisoners in the most of the cases are not allowed to be engaged in work, nor are involved in social and cultural activities. In addition, there are no sufficient conditions for physical activities, particularly in the course of poor weather conditions. NPM, alike in its previous reports, indicated the problem that a relatively small number of women in one detention unit were, while serving their time, placed in isolation often for unacceptably long time. Even though the isolation / solitary confinement represents special, i.e. disciplinary measure, within the system of the enforcement of criminal sanctions, which should be timely restricted, in the current practice, certain prisoners serve their detention measures that way, which indicates to the negative aspect of the women detention system. Many of prison capacities still do not apply principle of joint enforcement of sentence. Namely, in the course of a day convicts do not spend the available time with fellow-convicts in the common rooms, but are all the time isolated in their cells (alone or in smaller groups). Convicts are not sufficiently engaged in work, however an extreme advocacy for the improvement status is evident. Lack of cultural activities is also evident. Procedure for classification of convicts is not sufficiently transparent. Convicts are not sufficiently explained criteria for promotion, teachers are primarily dealing with administrating questionnaires. Mechanisms for promotion in line with the current criteria imply difficult transfer of convicts into the more favourable correctional groups, which result in the fact that many convicts are released from prison from the same correctional group they were assigned right upon admission to the prison.