- 60 The CPT recommends that the Greek authorities take steps to ensure that juveniles are not held in detention in police stations for periods in excess of 24 hours. If exceptionally, they have to be detained for a longer period, it should only be in a dedicated juvenile unit which offers the juveniles counselling, activities (recreational and physical) and access to outdoor exercise. 100. The Committee accepts that there may be exceptional situations in which it may be in the best interests of a child to be held together with a parent or another adult. However, this should not lead to children and even a baby being detained in a police cell. The CPT’s delegation met a woman from Bulgaria together with her 13-year-old daughter, eight-year-old son and 14-month-old baby in a barred-cell in the detention facility on the third floor of Monasteriou General Police Headquarters in Thessaloniki. The custody records indicated that they had been detained on an oral order given by the competent prosecutor following an official request from the chief officer of Demokratias Police Station. The delegation received clarification from the Chief Prosecutors in Thessaloniki two days later that the prosecutor in charge of the case had not been informed of the presence of the children. It was also told that an investigation would be conducted into this affair.65 In the CPT’s view, this lack of due diligence constitutes a clear breach of the basic principles set out above, resulting in young children ending up in a police detention cell. Such a situation is totally unacceptable. The safeguards and instructions in place to avoid children being held in police custody must be strengthened. Whenever it is deemed necessary for a single parent or carer to be detained, alternative care arrangements must be put in place for the children. The CPT recommends that the Greek authorities take the necessary steps to ensure that children are never detained in police custody cells because of the actions of their parents and the lack of alternative accommodation possibilities. Whenever it is considered necessary to detain a single parent or carer who is suspected of a criminal offence, alternative care arrangements must be put in place for the children. Further, the Committee would like to be informed of the outcome and recommendations following the investigation into the above-mentioned case in Thessaloniki. 2. Special Juvenile Detention Facility in Corinth Judicial Prison 101. Further to the findings of the CPT’s delegation in 2013 at Avlona Special Detention Facility for Juveniles, the Greek authorities were requested to transfer all inmates aged under 18 out of this establishment and to place them in a safe environment and ensure that they were provided with the necessary support that their age group required. To this end, the Greek authorities converted two wings of Corinth Judicial Prison into a special juvenile detention facility. 65 The delegation subsequently learned that the woman had paid the fine imposed by a court and had been released with her children, after having spent one night in police custody.