Situation during visit Steps taken in previous years (E/CN.4/2000/9/Add.3) (see E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2 and A/HRC/4/33/Add.2) (a) As a matter of immediate priority, action should be taken to remove from confinement in detention centres on remand all persons detained in excess of the officially proclaimed capacity of existing institutions. This recommendation could probably be substantially achieved by ordering the release pending trial of all non-violent first-time offenders. Extreme overcrowding existed in all prisons and created conditions which may be described as inhumane. In some cases prisons housed more than double their capacity. There were not enough beds for the number of persons per cell, requiring the inmates to sleep in shifts. In general, the most severe overcrowding involved males over the age of 21. There has been a significant decrease in the number of remand prisoners. This reduction is due in part to amendments to the provisions on remanding a person in custody in the Penal Procedure Code. At the end of 2004, the overall number of persons detained in detention facilities had decreased to 39.031, compared with 49.790 in 1999. Temporary police detention facilities, which did not meet the minimum conditions, were definitively or temporarily closed down. Law No. 543/2002 provided for the release of more than 3,000 non-recidivist prisoners, who had been sentenced to up to five years imprisonment. In order to eliminate overcrowding at temporary police detention facilities, a protocol was concluded between the Ministry of Administration and Interior and the National Administration of Penitentiaries, regulating the transfer of convicted persons to penitentiaries. Following amendments to the criminal procedural legislation, minor offenders, first time offenders and persons who committed non- Information received in the reporting period A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 166 Recommendation (E/CN.4/2000/9/Add.3)