-69 3.3.6. Ensuring detainees’ safety Anybody who speaks with a detainee for the purposes of collecting information on how he/she or his/her fellow detainees are treated, must keep in mind the possibility for undermining his/her safety. How can detainees’ safety be compromised? Even though Article 21 of the OPCAT specifically prohibits any sanction against any person for having communicated to the NPM any information, in a detention context, retaliation against detainees who have done this can take place in a variety of ways: through direct physical attacks or threats, through formal or informal punishments, by withdrawing their formal and informal privileges, through instigating inter-prisoner violence, by submitting negative opinion in early release proceedings, by refusing work, by targeting relatives and friends during visits, etc. The legal framework under which detention facilities operate throughout Europe still bears marks from the past when putting somebody in detention amounted to total submission to detention authority, and no rights and no safeguards against abuse of power. This makes prisoners extremely vulnerable. This is of course much more so in the case of prisoners in a situation of vulnerability. How to prevent such retaliation? How to ensure that the “do no harm” principle is fully respected? The key to addressing such safety concerns is paying constant attention to them before, during and after the visit. Before the visit the delegation can collect information about safety conditions in the particular detention facility from its previous reports, from NGO reports, media, former prisoners and international reports. It should discuss safety and include safety measures in planning the visit, and should train members of the monitoring team on how to implement them. Although it may not be easy, especially where the monitoring team visits the detention facility for the first time, it should try to come up with a preliminary assessment of the safety risks, however rough. The key to ensuring detainees’ safety is the monitor’s behaviour during the visit. Here the experience suggests some bright-line rules, which must apply in high risk situations: • When selecting individual detainees for interviews, choose within large groups on a random basis; Prisoners in a Situation of Vulnerability