ESSEX PAPER 3: INITIAL GUIDANCE ON THE INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UN NELSON MANDELA RULES with international standards. Maintenance of accurate prisoner records is also crucial to prevent overcrowding and rights violations’.105 The experts agreed that Rule 10 should be interpreted to include reliable data on a broad range of trends such as the numbers of deaths and serious injuries,106 and data on the profile of prison populations,107 including, for example, on the changing age profile of a prison population so appropriate facilities and programmes can be provided. The experts stressed the importance of generating information on occupancy rates to address and/ or prevent overcrowding. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, for example, has emphasised the need for a reliable system of registration to control prison overcrowding.108 The data generated should be publicly available and easily accessible, to better inform public policy and provide the public and media with regular factual information about matters affecting prisoners.  Institutional personnel Working conditions of prison staff The Essex group recognised that working in a prison requires specific skills, but that prison staff are often poorly paid, under-trained and experience high levels of work-related stress and violence.109 It was also noted that those working in isolated, rural prisons may experience particular difficulties. The group discussed the need for decent working conditions and terms of service for prison staff. This is also a prerequisite to attract and retain suitable people and to enable them to deliver their duties effectively. Favourable conditions of service should include consideration of prisoner to staff ratios. (See also Chapter 6, Incident management - Safety and security.) The experts also discussed the need to inform the public about prisons, prison staff and the significance of their role in safeguarding society (Rule 74(2)), noting that prison staff are often held in lower regard than other actors who work in the criminal justice field. Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Workshop 2: Survey of United Nations and other best practices in the treatment of prisoners in the criminal justice system: Background Paper, 28 January 2010, 6A/CONF.213/13, para. 18. See also UNODC, Handbook on Prisoner File Management, New York, 2008, which contains practical guidance on setting up effective registration systems. 105  The UN Committee against Torture, for example, has stated that ‘States should monitor and document incidents of violence in prisons with a view to revealing the root causes and designing appropriate prevention strategies’. (UN Committee against Torture, Observations of the Committee against Torture on the revision of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMR), 16 December 2013, CAT/C/51/4, para. 15 (CAT SMR revision observations)). See also European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), 3rd General Report on the CPT’s activities covering the period 1 January to 31 December 1992, 1993, CPT/Inf (93) 12, para. 62: ‘The health care service could compile periodic statistics concerning injuries observed, for the attention of prison management, the Ministry of Justice, etc.’ 106  In this context the experts recalled the value of research, and in particular Rules 67 and 68 of the UN Bangkok Rules which call for research into the reasons why women are in prison and the impact of prison on them as well as research on the number of children affected by imprisonment and the impact on them. 107  Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Report on the Human Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, 31 December 2011, OEA/Ser.L/V/II Doc 64, para. 157. 108  See, for example, Penal Reform International, ‘Prison Staff: Overworked and Underpaid?’, Global Prison Trends 2015, 2016; and PRI and APT, ‘Staff working conditions: Addressing risk factors to prevent torture and ill-treatment’, Detention Monitoring Tool, second edition, 2015. 109  Penal Reform International and the Essex Human Rights Centre | 34