Overcrowding and appalling conditions of the prison was a constant problem at Number Four, where the communal cells often housed twice the number of prisoners for which they were designed. There were strict hierarchies that divided the prisoners: a white prisoner would receive two sleeping mats, a mattress and a pillow, three blankets, four sheets, two pillow cases and a bedspread. Non-white prisoners, however, got two sleeping mats and three blankets only.