All institutions are organized in the same way in buildings and prisoners are generally assigned to them according to whether they are accused, prisoners of common rights, political prisoners, women or minors.

In the Abidjan detention and correction centre, for example, newcomers undergo a practice called “good arrival”: they are beaten and stripped naked, and subjected to internal and external searches. They are placed, for their first night, naked in a collective cell. They have to pay for a better cell.

The admission staff is not trained to recognise warning signs among prisoners who may inflict self-harm or harm other prisoners.

Following the “Battle of Abidjan” in March-April 2011, former prisoners became guards, thus promoting some knowledge of the terrain and other prisoners considered as dangerous.

Most prisoners are illiterate and often not well-informed of the judicial treatment of their case. Some of them have a lawyer who comes to prison regularly to meet their clients in the parlours.

Detainees have the opportunity to file a complaint against the prison administration.

Prisoners can make complaints trough their lawyer.

The National Human Rights Commission of Côte d’Ivoire (CNDHCI) visits the country’s prisons and publishes reports every year. Its ultimate objective is to become a mechanism for the prevention of torture¹.

The General Inspectorate of Judicial and Penitentiary Services, although existing, is not functional.

The granting of a sentence adjustment falls within the competence of the President of the Republic but also that of the sentencing judges, who enjoy a certain amount of discretionary power in adjusting sentences.

Alassane Ouattara granted presidential pardons, in Febrary 2015, to 3000 imprisoned persons for crimes judged to be minor.