- that disciplinary committee sessions should be compulsorily held in the presence of an assessor from civil society, failing which the sanctions pronounced shall be invalid. For this purpose, the Contrôleur général recommends that initial and continuing training should be implemented for assessors from civil society. He also recommends that the Minister Of Justice might facilitate a meeting of assessors in order to take advantage of their experience in the reforms that she needs to conduct; - that all video surveillance recordings of incidents should be viewed in disciplinary hearings by means of monitors installed in each disciplinary committee room; - that at the time of disciplinary hearings and even prior to the inquiry stage, the prisons administration should organise face to face comparison of evidence and hear witnesses; - that for prisoners who declare that they do not understand French, a special procedure should systematically be put in place, with the appointment of an interpreter, chosen from the list approved by the court of appeal, by the head of the institution. With regard to placement in confinement and placement in disciplinary wings pending disciplinary committee hearings, these changes should specify: - that the suspension of educational, teaching and professional training activities should not be included among the restrictions resulting from the sanction of confinement, which remains a disciplinary measure in its own right; - that placement in punishment wings pending disciplinary hearings should be strictly limited to cases of urgency, in accordance with the Prisons Act of 24 th November 2009, apart from any other grounds or any other consideration; - that whenever means of physical restraint are used at the time of placement in punishment wings pending disciplinary hearings, this should be systematically recorded by means ensuring the traceability thereof; - that actions wearing protective clothing undertaken in order to carry out placements in punishment cells pending disciplinary hearings should be filmed insofar as possible and the images placed at the disposal of the authorities responsible for inspecting institutions. With regard to the regime applied in punishment wings, these new laws should specify: - that in view of the harshness of the sanction of placement in a punishment cell, the latter should only be pronounced as a last resort and envisaged in case of failure of compensatory sanctions and mediations; - that medical opinions diagnosing unfitness for stays in punishment wings should revoke this mode of enforcement of a disciplinary measure and not suspend it pending a medical opinion to the contrary; In this respect, the Contrôleur général recommends that medical staff should not take part in decision-making processes leading to disciplinary sanctions; the practice of obliging doctors to certify whether or not prisoners are fit to be placed in the punishment wing 142