- 43 ii. Larissa Prison 117. At the time of the delegation's visit, the number of inmates accommodated at Larissa Prison was in excess of 200% of the official capacity, and at the same time the establishment was seriously understaffed as regards both prison officers2 and medical/social staff. This situation had resulted in a major disruption of the prison regime. 118. The prison's detention facilities consisted in principle of three distinct blocks, each containing twenty-three small dormitories and six single cells. The dormitories measured 21 m², to which is to be added a separate sanitary annex. They were meant to hold up to five prisoners, an occupancy level which would be acceptable (though in view of the dormitories' dimensions, a rate of four prisoners per dormitory would be preferable). However, the excessive prison population meant that they were accommodating eight or nine prisoners, occasionally ten. The space taken by beds precluded the presence of tables and chairs; moreover, the canvas-based beds and mattresses were themselves often old and torn, many prisoners using sheets of cardboard as a means of reinforcement. The maintenance of acceptable levels of cleanliness and hygiene was clearly very difficult under such circumstances; further, the toilet and washing facilities in some of the sanitary annexes were in need of repair. Conditions of detention were much better in the single cells, which were of a good size (9+ m²) and for the most part were accommodating only one prisoner (usually someone serving a very long sentence or a prisoner who for one reason or another could not share accommodation). Shower facilities were located in the ground floor of each block. They were in an adequate state of repair, and prisoners had ready access to them. 119. In view of the number of prisoners requiring accommodation, the prison's management had been obliged to improvise and bring into play other areas as detention facilities. The most striking example of this was the use of a dining room facility located within the kitchen area to accommodate 54 prisoners, most of whom were sentenced and had work in the prison. Resort to bunk beds meant that the maximum possible use had been made of the room available, with the result that the provision of tables and chairs had been possible. Although from the standpoint of living space, these prisoners were better off than those held in the dormitories, their conditions of detention were totally inappropriate. In addition, a workshop had been converted into a dormitory for juvenile prisoners. At the time of the delegation's visit 33 juveniles were being held there, the space available being more than adequate for that number. Close to this dormitory there was another, smaller, dormitory accommodating 12 homosexual and transvestite prisoners; conditions were somewhat overcrowded, but once again distinctly better than in the dormitories of the detention blocks. 2 36 posts in the official complement of 131 prison officers were vacant, the official complement itself having been calculated on the basis of a prison population of 350, not 711 - which was the actual population on the first day of the visit.