preparing for their social reintegration. They were focused particularly on the rehabilitation of places where people are deprived of their freedoms, on improvement of the daily living conditions of detainees, on the establishment of a genuine social reintegration policy and on the improvement of working and living conditions of prisons’ staff. a. General information on prisons Senegal : 30. As at 31 December 2012, the prison population in Senegal was 33,337 inmates distributed across 37 prisons in the country7. Its composition was as follows:  30,433 males or 91.29% of the prison population ;  1488 females or 4.46% of the prison population ;  1416 minors 8 or 4. 25% of the prison population ;  3063 foreigners9 or 9.19% of the prison population. 31. This prison population was concentrated in the Dakar region which accounted for almost half of the inmates or 15,670 persons or 47%. This is followed by regions, such as Thiès-Diourbel with 7,217 inmates (22%), Kaolack with 3,101 inmates (9%), St-Louis with 3007 inmates (9%), Ziguinchor with 2,216 inmates (7%) and Tambacounda with 2126 inmates (6%). 32. The prison population grew exponentially between 2002 and 2012 since the number virtually doubled. b. Rehabilitation of detention centres in Senegal : 33. It is for these reasons that the new Senegalese authorities, mindful of their treaty obligations, committed themselves to «improving living conditions in the prisons », since in their view, « the prison environment must be made more humane10 to ensure that it becomes a preparatory ground for a future social reintegration of the prisoner11. » Thus, in the 2013 budget of the Ministry of Justice, an amount of CFAF 4.5 billion was allocated for infrastructural rehabilitation. The plans of the Ministry of Justice are:  The construction of the remand home and prison (MAC) with a capacity of 1500 inmates in Sébikotane (40 kilometres from Dakar) to ease the congestion at the Mac de Rebeuss and the CP of Dakar; 7 In addition to the 30 mixed regional Remand Home and Prison (MAC), the country has 2 penal camps (CP) in Dakar and Koutal, 2 MACs for women and 2 other MACs in the Dakar region and one MAC for minors in the Dakar region. 8 Including 39 girls. 9 Accounting for 47 nationalities. 10 In an interview with the Dakar Daily, the current Minister of Justice confessed that « most of our prisons did not respect the inalienable rights of prisoners » (Le Quotidien of 2 June 2012). The emphases are ours. 11 General policy speech delivered by the Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye before members of the Senegalese National Assembly on 10 September 2012. 11