4. RESTRICTIONS, DISCIPLINE AND SANCTIONS PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE 76 Health-care staff should pay particular attention to the health of prisoners in segregation and undergoing other forms of sanctions. To this end, health-care staff must be informed every time a prisoner is placed in solitary confinement and prison authorities must give health-care staff unimpeded access to all segregated prisoners. 77 Daily health-care visits to those undergoing any form of involuntary separation must be private to ensure full medical confidentiality. Thus, prisoners should be able to have a confidential conversation with health-care staff. Such conversations are particularly important in detecting mental health conditions. 78 In the absence of the prison director, health-care personnel should report any concerns to another designated senior staff member. 79 In addition to daily scheduled visits, health-care staff should be available to visit prisoners undergoing sanctions at any time of the day. This could be in response to a direct request from the prisoner or at the recommendation of a staff member. 80 The recommendations of the health-care staff in relation to a prisoner’s health must be acted upon by the prison director or other delegated staff member. 4.4. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION RELEVANT RULES: ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION Rule 38(1): 1. Prison administrations are encouraged 4 to use, to the extent possible, conflict prevention, mediation or any other alternative dispute resolution mechanism to prevent disciplinary offences or to resolve conflicts. 112 WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 81 There are many effective and well-proven ways in which to deal with security and order in places of detention, such as the configuration and infrastructure of the place of detention; having adequate numbers of well-trained staff; having an effective system of classification and separation of detainees; having positive staff-prisoner relationships that enable prison staff to anticipate and proactively deal with problems; and having dynamic security and conflict resolution tools, such as mediation, at hand.258 82 Prison administrations have a number of options at their disposal to resolve problems without resorting to disciplinary sanctions. These include conflict prevention, informal warnings for minor breaches of discipline and mediation techniques. As with disciplinary procedures, care should be taken to ensure that such measures are applied fairly and consistently. 83 The UN Special Rapporteur on torture has reiterated the importance of alternative dispute resolution stating that “it is essential that the Rules provide for an obligation for prison authorities to use disciplinary measures on an exceptional basis and only when the use of mediation and other dissuasive methods to resolve disputes proves to be inadequate to maintain proper order”.259 258. Second Report of Essex Expert Group on the Review of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Penal Reform International and the University of Essex, 20 March 2014, para. 43 at www.penalreform.org/resource/report-essex-experts-review-standardminimum-rules-treatment. 259. Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture, A/68/295, op. cit. note 57, para. 57. Guidance document on the Nelson Mandela Rules