ESSEX PAPER 3: INITIAL GUIDANCE ON THE INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UN NELSON MANDELA RULES also for material support. The European Committee to Prevent Torture (CPT) has stressed the importance of good contact with the outside world, as a means to safeguard relationships with family and close friends,147 alluding to the right to private and family life. Prison administration, therefore, has a duty to encourage communication with the outside world. The UNODC Handbook on Dynamic Security clarifies that ‘Prisoners’ contacts must be seen as entitlements rather than privileges’, and that they should, therefore, not be used as either rewards or punishments.148 The importance of maintaining social relations between prisoners and their family members is emphasised in Rule 106. Rule 59 underlines the importance of allocation ‘to prisons close to their homes or their places of rehabilitation’. A number of Rules capture the different facets of contact with family and friends, particularly in relation to notification and information about certain events: •  Rule 7 calls on prison administration to document the names of family members (including children), emergency contact details and prisoners’ next of kin. •  Rule 68 concerns the right of prisoners to immediately inform their family (or another dedicated contact person) of their imprisonment and of any transfer, as well as of any serious illness or injury. •  The prison administration is obliged to notify the next of kin or emergency contact in the event of a prisoner’s serious illness, injury or transfer to a health institution,149 and in the event of death of a prisoner (Rule 69). •  Should a ‘near relative or any significant other’ die or get seriously ill, the prison administration is required to inform the prisoner. In such cases, prison administrations should also consider whether circumstances allow for the prisoner to visit the sick relative or attend the funeral, either under escort or alone (Rule 70). •  The right to issue requests and complaints, to the inspector of prisons, to the central prison administration and to judicial or other competent authorities with reviewing or remedial power, extends to family members,150 pursuant to Rule 56(4). See Chapter 2, Prison management – complaints. •  The body of a deceased prisoner should be returned to the next of kin (Rule 72). •  Communication with family and friends ‘at regular intervals’ is enshrined in Rule 58, listing correspondence (in writing, telecommunication, electronic, digital and other means) and visits as the means of communication. The Essex group noted the various ways in which prisoners can maintain contact with the outside: letters; visits; telephone calls; prison leave; books; newspapers; and the internet; but focused their discussion on visits of family and friends. They pointed out that means of communication, including electronic ones, need to be facilitated with due regard to the principle of non-discrimination (see Rule 2(1)). This implies that means European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), 2nd General Report on the CPT’s activities covering the period 1 January to 31 December 1991, 1992, CPT/Inf (92) 3, para. 51 (CPT 2nd General Report). 147  United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Handbook on Dynamic Security and Prison Intelligence, New York, 2015, p. 22 (Handbook on Dynamic Security). 148  Note the formulation ‘individuals designated by a prisoner to receive his/ her health information’ in Rule 69. 149  As well as legal advisers and ‘any other person who has knowledge of the case’ – see Rule 56(4). 150  Penal Reform International and the Essex Human Rights Centre | 44