Chapter 1 Places of deprivation of liberty in 2017 In 2017, the CGLPL conducted 148 inspections, with an average duration of slightly more than three days. Taking into account the average duration of inspections, this represents 461 days spent in places of deprivation of liberty, including 179 days in hospitals, 123 days in prisons, 31 days in detention centres and 16 in juvenile detention centres. With the exception of mental health institutions and custody facilities, these inspections were all second or third inspections. They were therefore an opportunity to assess how practices had progressed as well as what action had been taken following the CGLPL's previous recommendations. Over and above its inspections, the CGLPL was obliged to react to events that affected the day-to-day running of some places of deprivation of liberty: the publication of a white paper on the prison estate, a public debate on the presence of mentally ill people in prison, the simultaneous visits carried out by members of the French National Assembly's Committee of Laws in prisons or the persisting pressure in terms of migrant numbers at a time when internal borders are being closed. In light of these visits, the current circumstances and the CGLPL's in-depth knowledge acquired over previous years, it would like to highlight here the major themes that currently characterise each category of institution subject to its oversight as regards the respect of the fundamental rights of the people being detained. 1. MENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS IN 2017 This year, the CGLPL's inspections of mental health institutions took place in a context where the benefits are becoming increasingly apparent: the institutions often see the CGLPL's inspection as the opportunity to shed external light on its practices and benefit from advice on the good practices that the CGLPL has been able to observe in other institutions. In 2017, the CGLPL visited 30 health facilities which are authorised to accommodate patients who are committed involuntarily: 15 specialist hospitals, one clinic geared exclusively towards mental health care and 14 psychiatry departments in general or teaching hospitals1. These were all first inspections. Two of them followed on from reports of problems by nursing staff who wished to remain anonymous. This circumstance had the effect of expediting the CGLPL's inspection, without influencing the way the inspection was conducted or the type of checks carried out. 1.1 The view taken of patients committed involuntarily is changing, but practices that run counter to their fundamental rights persist The thematic report on the use of solitary confinement and restraint in mental health institutions, published in 2016, the public outcry over the poor treatment suffered the same year in one institution and the Chief Inspector's active contribution to a number of symposia or documents bearing on psychiatry have clearly enabled all of the sector's stakeholders to gauge the legitimacy of the CGLPL's work in an area where it seems to have become apparent that abuses are possible and where 1 The full list of institutions inspected in 2017 is given in Appendix 2 hereto. 12