But research found that four in every five specialist centres were operating at a higher occupancy level than set out in the guidelines, with at least 100% of cots full for at least a month during 2009.
By cracking down on parolees who break these rules -- who commit so-called technical violations -- parole officers have helped keep prison cots full during an era of lowered crime rates.
On one side a baby cot is crammed full of teddies and baby paraphernalia; opposite, a small bed has been commandeered as a base by the midwives.
"Unexpurgated" is what you hear about this book, as if Twain were dictating from his cot in the afterlife, full of brimstone and wrath.
"The stately old home … is now a children's hospital: the rooms are full of cots, each with its tiny sick child, and up and down go the nurses, busy with their work… It takes a lot of money to build such a hospital" (in the words of the accompanying two-page "Victoria Hospital Story" in the book).
I caught up with the Wells brothers the next day at the shelter in Knoxville, a big basketball arena full of Army cots.
This was not planned, and despite a house full of travel cots and car seats, I was looking forward to moving away from nappies and half-drunk cups of tea.
In Benadir, there is a room full of old blue cots, one after another, where the sickest children lie.
With a dirt floor, sleeping cots for seats, the setting was not exactly full of festive cheer, but the soldiers were in high spirits none the less.
Of course, some bleeding hearts will watch the first Panorama about Vietnamese blood farms full of blanched tweens lolling in cots, servicing the intravenous needs of rich Westerners, and get very antsy.
