42 Gender and Security Toolkit life around”.29 As many countries do not have sufficient detention facilities to allow women and girls to be detained close to their local community, many female prisoners lose out on regular contact with family and friends who might otherwise have visited them. Institutional authorities should introduce reasonable adjustments to policies, such as allowing for longer visits when family and friends are able to come, or designating a greater amount of telephone credit to those away from their home community (including foreign nationals). In the Philippines, for example, women can receive visitors for at least three hours during the week and for longer with their children at weekends. Visitors are not restricted to one room but move freely within the communal areas, improving the facilitation of normalized and relaxed relationships.30 It is also important for prison management to facilitate whatever modes of communication are available, such as letter writing, phone calls, video calls, etc., but these modes of communication should never be designated instead of in-person visits. See Mandela Rules, Rule 58, for further guidance on “contact with the outside world”. Women in prison are more likely to have responsibilities as primary caregivers than men. It is especially important that prisoners who are primary caregivers should be given the opportunity to maintain links with their children left behind. Whenever possible, primary caregivers should be allowed to leave prison for short periods to be with their families. When the children visit the prison, as much contact as possible should be allowed, as well as privacy. Visits between primary caregivers and children should always allow physical contact. They should never be closed or non-contact visits with some form of screen or physical barrier separating the participants. If possible the visits should last for a whole day.31 Conjugal visits (along with condom availability) remain uncommon, but are provided for in some countries.32 Where they are allowed, the criteria for women to receive conjugal visits are often stringent, e.g. the need to demonstrate good behaviour, that their partner is their husband or a stable partner and that they are free of sexually transmitted infections. Men rarely have to meet such criteria in order to receive conjugal visits. Same-sex partner conjugal visits are incredibly rare, and further advocacy work is needed in this area (see Box 17). Box 17: Equality in conjugal visits in Costa Rica In October 2011 the Supreme Court of Costa Rica ruled in favour of a detainee who had lodged a complaint about discrimination in the rules of the penitentiary system, which stated that “intimate visits” could take place only with a person of a different sex. Homosexual detainees in Costa Rica now have the possibility of intimate visits on an equal basis with heterosexual detainees. Source: J.-S. Blanc (2015) “LGBTI persons deprived of their liberty: A framework for preventive monitoring”, 2nd edn, London and Geneva: Penal Reform International and Association for the Prevention of Torture, p. 13. Post-conflict and post-disaster contexts Particular difficulties arise when a state is recovering from a period of conflict or natural disaster. Allocating resources to places of deprivation of liberty is often low on the government and donor priority list. However, rebuilding infrastructure and recruiting new staff can provide an opportunity to integrate a gender perspective from the foundations up. It is important that the relevant state administrative body accepts the need for detention facilities which keep all women, men, boys and girls safe and healthy and maintain their dignity, acknowledges that differences in approach will be required for different population Points to remember It is important not to assume that a prisoner will want to see every person who comes for visits. For example, women may be visited by previous abusers, and this can cause ongoing or retraumatizing effects. Always ask the detainee whether she or he wants to receive the visitor, and note specific individuals not to be permitted in advance.