Part I: Recognition and usage 22 Doctors in prison: documenting torture in detention Introduction By Dr Hernan Reyes International Committee of the Red Cross The documentation of torture inside a prison raises a number of issues specific to the fact that the people being interviewed are still in custody. Quite obviously there will be pitfalls to avoid and safeguards to ensure, which may not be relevant when documenting torture within the relative safety and calm of a centre for torture survivors. In a prison, the prisoners who have suffered ill-treatment and torture are potentially still at risk and this will condition the way doctors document ill-treatment and torture inside prisons and other places of custody. The two main issues to be addressed are how the doctor can establish trust with the prisoner and how the doctor should relate to potential risks posed to him/herself and/or the prisoner. The following analysis focuses on these two elements and the specific considerations that prison doctors must take into account when monitoring detainees. Establishing the trust of the detainee A prison doctor will often be a part of the custodial system, paid by the authorities and thus seen by the prisoner as being “on the other side of the bars”. Such a doctor is perceived very differently – and is indeed in a totally different situation – from a physician coming to the prison from the outside world, quite possibly even from another country. Prison doctors often will not have the trust of the prisoners in their care, all the more so if the prisoners have been tortured by the very authorities the prison system represents. This situation can be further exacerbated if (other) doctors have participated in torturing the prisoner. The prison doctors will be seen, at best, as having split loyalties. Thus, for a prison doctor the most important factor in documenting torture will be obtaining the trust of the prisoners, without which any objective documentation will be impossible.