31 Visits in 2016 Prisons Bredtveit Detention and Security Prison 15-16 March 2016 Bredtveit is a prison for women who have received criminal convictions or preventive detention sentences and women remanded in custody. The prison has 64 places, divided between 45 high-security places and 19 lower security places. The visit did not include the lower security section. Main findings During the visit, the NPM reviewed the prison's procedure in cases where inmates risked finding themselves in especially vulnerable situations with a male member of staff, for example during body searches, the taking of urine samples or in connection with confinement to a security cell or restraint bed. None of the inmates the NPM talked to expressed any reservations about there being male officers in the prison or that this made them feel unsafe. The prison seemed to be highly aware that situations that require the removal of clothing can be a great burden for inmates who may be traumatised by previous sexual abuse. No examples were found of male officers having performed body searches or having been present during the taking of urine samples. It nonetheless emerged that male officers had helped to undress an inmate who refused to take her clothes off voluntarily. This was done together with female officers. Male officers had also on one occasion supervised an inmate who was strapped to the restraint bed without clothes on. In the dialogue with the prison, it emerged that inmates were never supposed to be naked on the restraint bed and that this incident was a breach of procedure. On another occasion, a male officer had assisted in the process of an inmate strapped to the restraint bed using a bedpan. Situations such as this can be traumatic and entail a risk of ill-treatment. Photo: Mimsy Møller/Samfoto/NTB Scanpix Bredtveit Detention and Security Prison.