Preface During the first six years of its existence, the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté (CGLPL)1 has established itself as an institution with a certain influence on issues of deprivation of liberty in France. Often moving against the tide, Jean-Marie Delarue and his inspectors have above all managed to return dignity to those whom our societies tend to relegate to the back of the collective conscience: persons deprived of their liberty. Since 2008 the Contrôleur général managed to positively influence the debate on issues of detention in France, as well as public policies in this area. Besides his regular visits to places of detention, he made use of the main tools within his reach: his words, reports and recommendations. He untiringly called out to both the authorities as well as to his fellow citizens about the realities of detention. In his annual reports, public opinions or interviews with the media, he gave a voice to those who had become inaudible. The Association for the Prevention of torture (APT) is following the work carried out by the Contrôleur with a lot of interest. Every time he takes the floor, we are invited to reflect on the deprivation of liberty; every intervention is the product of work on the ground, the result of visits to places of detention, police custody, juvenile and pre-trial detention centres, health institutions and other closed places. In admiration of his analysis and sometimes brave positions regarding issues such as young children in prison and their imprisoned mothers, overcrowding, or the care and management of transsexual prisoners, we endeavoured to disseminate them amongst the other National Preventive Mechanisms (NPM) all over the world. As of today, the NPM community is composed of fifty-nine active institutions on five continents. Being certain that the global movement 1 Controller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty. 1