MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE 73 ■ how to conduct private interviews with persons deprived of their liberty; ■ the behaviour to adopt with the authorities, staff, and detainees; ■ the basic security rules to respect during the visit; ■ report writing; ■ mechanisms for cooperation and communication within your own mechanism. 3. PREPARING THE VISIT 3.1 Preparatory work For a visit to take place in the best possible conditions it must be well prepared beforehand. The visiting mechanism should set aside the necessary time in order to: Summarise the information available about the place to be visited: ■ a summary of information obtained during earlier visits or from other sources (other visiting bodies, NGOs, media, released detainees, families of detainees, lawyers, charity association, volunteers working in places of detention, etc.); the authorities directly responsible and the higher authorities; ■ the capacity of the place, the number and the status of the inmates; ■ any known or alleged problems. ■