MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE 85 are held as part of the examination of the conditions of detention. Talks with the surveillance personnel are often difficult to carry out for reasons stemming from the organisational structure and nature of their work. The surveillance personnel are, however, an important element in the daily life of the persons deprived of their liberty, and it is thus important to organise talks with them in which the visiting team explains its mandate and the reasons for its work, answers their questions, and listens to their view-point. This will form a good basis for subsequent work by the mechanism. Visitors can also organise talks in private with members of the staff, out of hearing and out of sight of other personnel, if they so request. 4.5 Final talk with the director It is important to formally end the visit with a talk with the head of the institution. This final talk has to be prepared, and the whole visiting team has to meet in advance in order to share information and discuss what are the key points to convey. It is important to establish a constructive dialogue with those in charge of the places visited, so that they are informed promptly of the result of the visit. The aim of the final talk is to transmit a summary of facts found and specific issues identified. Urgent cases, in particular regarding prevention of torture or other forms of ill-treatment, should be raised immediately. In cases where grave abuses have been noted, the visiting mechanism should address the authorities further up the hierarchy directly, so as not to incur the risk of reprisals against those who provided the information. This strategy should be used only in serious cases, to avoid unnecessarily damaging working relations with the person in charge. When no specific problems have been encountered, the final talk with the director can be of a more formal or discursive nature.