5. Recommendations concerning juvenile detention centres The recommendations submitted to the Minister of Justice along with her responses can be found in Appendix 4. 5.1 General recommendations 5.1.1 Dignity and physical integrity The CGLPL had recommended that general rules bearing on discipline be established. The Minister of Justice claims that this measure was subject in 2015 to a memo on educational action and guidelines on developing institutions' rules of procedure. This point was also discussed between juvenile detention centre directors in 2017, when it appeared necessary to put an end to subjective assessments and to establish objective indicators for disobedience so as to deliver punishments on a personal, case-by-case basis. The CGLPL can only encourage that the efforts being taken on this subject continue along these lines. Set up national objective indicators for assessing disobedience in juvenile detention centres and tools for applying personal punishments on a case-by-case basis. 5.1.2 Rights of defence The CGLPL had recommended setting up arrangements for accessing legal rights, allowing children to contact the lawyer of their choice as well as the judge in charge of their file and offering children support when accessing their file. These measures are requirements pursuant to the Social Action and Family Code; they are transposed in the guidelines of 4 May 2015 on drafting the operating regulations concerning collective court-ordered placement institutions in the public sector and authorised associations sector, but have not been addressed by specific instructions. Provision is made to guarantee complete confidentiality during exchanges between young people and their lawyer, meetings with lawyers are subject to specific permissions for the young person to leave the juvenile detention centre, the young person and legal guardians are entitled to access any information or document concerning the young person’s detention arrangements, their communication is supervised depending on the legal, psychological or medical nature of the information. The CGLPL duly notes this provision but finds, during its inspections, that it is unevenly applied, and it therefore recommends that a reminder be given of these rules, on which training and supervision should be ensured. 5.1.3 Right to privacy and family life - relations with the outside world The CGLPL had recommended developing family visits inside institutions and creating facilities that are conducive to confidential, sociable encounters. The Minister of Justice underscores the need to involve families and youth workers trained in working with young offenders in home environments in care provision at juvenile detention centres; she points out that the recommendation merely repeats the provisions of the functional programme of such centres, which unfortunately is correct. But for all that, the measure has not systematically been put into practice. As such, the CGLPL recommends that reminders and supervision be carried out as regards this measure. 67

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