• Provide effective legal aid to victims of violent crime suffered in detention, covering legal advice and representation, as well as translation and interpretation costs, as required by the 2012 Directive. Legal aid must be made available to all victims irrespective of their nationality and residence status. • Adapt legal aid fees to legal assistance in detention to reflect the fact that it is more time consuming for lawyers to go into places of detention to meet with their clients, than it is to represent victims outside detention. It is also important to ensure that the costs associated with interpretation and translation are covered by legal aid. • Adopt strict rules on access to a lawyer with clear timeframes. Access cannot be left to the discretion of the Detention Administration/Detention Staff. • Ensure secure, confidential and fast track channels of communication for victims to (i) report crime to Law Enforcement Authorities; and (ii) request a medical examination directly to the medical staff. These safe channels could include secure mailboxes, private phone booths or online tools. The key is that the communication channels break the dependence of victims on Detention Staff. • Ensure effective access to medical assistance and medical evidence.107 • Hold Detention Staff accountable. Adequately investigate and sanction cases of abuse, ill-treatment and violence by Detention Staff against detainees, including cases where Detention Staff produce disciplinary reports as a means of justifying the use of force. Sanction the obstruction of detainees’ communications by Detention Staff. • Increase oversight of Detention Staff. Create clear and detailed records of decisions to apply disciplinary measures against detainees – in particular every use of force – and security measures, for oversight purposes. • Facilitate access to Detention Centres for lawyers (including law clinics), civil society, and other outside services including Victim Support Services. Bar associations / lawyers / legal aid boards • Work with the Detention Administration to establish lawyers’ desks in prisons. Lawyers should be accessible to all detainees to advise them of their rights – including Victims’ Rights– and to facilitate the appointment of legal aid lawyers when necessary to file criminal complaints. • Research solutions to facilitate access to a lawyer in detention, including through the use of digital technologies. • Acknowledge the crucial role of lawyers in detention. Lawyers are key witnesses to detect victimisation situations, inform their clients on Victims’ Rights and help them gather evidence and file complaints. • Train lawyers on their role in detention, including on: (i) identifying a detainee who has been victimised, by asking the right questions; (ii) how to preserve and obtain evidence in Detention Centres; (iii) the available remedies (including training on ECHR case law and EU law when Law Enforcement Authorities fail to properly investigate); and (iv) how to obtain protection measures. • Establish quality standards or guidelines for lawyers working in a detention context. They should for example include lawyers’ participation in disciplinary proceedings against their client, regular visits to clients in detention, and inquiring about detention conditions, etc. • All detainees should have access to medical assistance from the start of their detention. • Prompt medical examination should be conducted on detainees who have been injured and detailed reports should be kept. • Prompt medical examination should be conducted for detainees who are placed in solitary confinement. • Medical examination should be confidential, conducted in person and away from non-medical Detention Staff (unless exceptionally at the request of medical staff). • Medical records established following the medical examination of a detainee presenting signs of violence should include: (i) a summary of the detainee’s statement regarding relevant facts, including the detainee’s description of his medical state and any allegation of ill-treatment; and (ii) a summary of medical observations following a medical examination.108 • Ensure medical staff in Detention Centres are not employed by the Detention Administration and are independent. • Adopt clear policies to guarantee easy identification of Detention Staff. Implement an obligation to wear visible name badges, and for the director to be able to track the whereabouts of Detention Staff in the detention centre. Law enforcement and judicial authorities • Facilitate filing complaints for detainees. Where it is not yet the case, criminal complaints could be filed in various ways including: (i) through intermediaries by allowing family or a lawyer to file a complaint in the detainee's name; (ii) via mail, online/email or phone; or (iii) at police desks or the secretariat in Detention Centres. Ready-made templates can be used to make it easier to fill out the police report. 107 CPT, Documenting and reporting medical evidence of ill-treatment, Extract from the 23rd General Report of the CPT, 2013, available at: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cpt/medical-evidence-ill-treatment. 108 See e.g, CPT, Belgium national report, published in 2018, para. 82, available at: https://rm.coe.int/16807913b1. 38