2.6 Police stations, police detention centres and barracks 2.6.1 Introduction In the year under review, the commissions conducted 65 visits to police institutions. Of these, 24 visits were to police detention centres, including detention centres, 39 were to police stations and two visits were to other stations and departments. Whereas some deficits noted related solely to individual facilities, similar findings and observations by the commissions also brought systemic weaknesses in the conditions of police detention to light. 65 visits to police institutions In many cases, facility management was able to eliminate less serious deficits immediately after the concluding meetings with the commissions. The readiness of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to cooperate with the NPM in developing solutions for structural problems was also positive. However – as in the previous year – some of the NPM’s proposals were not implemented due to shortages of funds and personnel on the part of the relevant authorities. The commissions conducted five visits to military barracks. Five barracks visits 2.6.2 System-related problem areas – police detention centres 2.6.2.1 Working group obtains first results In its reports 2012 (pp. 25 et seq.) and 2013 (pp. 72 et seq.), the NPM reported on the structural deficits in the living conditions in police detention centres. In the course of investigative proceedings regarding the conditions of detention in police detention centres initiated in 2012, the NPM provided the Federal Ministry of the Interior with numerous proposals to improve the situation. Thus, for example, the Federal Ministry of the Interior – following a suggestion from the NPM – reviewed the information sheets provided to inmates to determine whether they were readily understandable and revised their contents. After a lively written exchange between the NPM and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the latter proposed to deploy a working group. Since March 2014, representatives of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the NPM have been discussing selected problems for which there had been no satisfactory solution in the past. Police detention centres generally serve as places of detention for persons in detention pending forced return and for police detainees and prisoners serving an administrative penalty. At the beginning, when the working group was being established, the Federal Ministry of the Interior reported on the introduction of a new concept for 118 Overall concept of detention pending forced return