FACTSHEET Given the circumstances, human rights organisations suspected that the prison officers punished him as revenge for his previous attempt to escape.44 With regard to prevention of self-harm and suicide in prisons, the World Health Organization (WHO) states that ‘suicidal inmates may require protective clothing or restraints’, but that ‘because of the controversial nature of restraints, clear policies and procedures must be in place if they are to be used. These must outline the situations in which restraints are appropriate and inappropriate, methods for ensuring that the least restrictive alternatives are used first, safety issues, time limits for use of restraints, the need for monitoring and supervision while in restraints, and access to mental health staff’. The WHO further recommends the ‘provision of social support’ and ‘routine visual checks and constant observation for acutely suicidal inmates’ as alternatives.45 In order to allow for scrutiny, proper recording of the use of restraints should be mandatory,46 including ‘the security reason and length of the use of the restraint’.47 When a prisoner indicated to the Special Rapporteur that the bar fetters had all been removed from some 200 to 300 prisoners the previous evening in anticipation of the Special Rapporteur’s visit, he inspected several pages of the fetters register, which contained a list of several hundred names and the dates on which fetters had been imposed, but not a date on which the fetters had been removed. At Karachi Central Jail, visited a few days later, all the relevant information was properly recorded in what was presented as the Fetters Register Entries. Entries were neatly written in what appeared to be the same hand and the same ink.48 The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), conscious of injuries that may be sustained, has recommended that ‘when resort to instruments of physical restraint is required, the prisoner concerned should be kept under constant and adequate supervision’.49 What could monitoring bodies check? • In which situations do prison staff resort to the use of instruments of restraint? • Do the situations in which restraints are applied, the way or duration of use, indicate they are in fact used as a punishment? • For how long are restraints applied? When are they removed? • Is the use documented in the prisoner’s file and/or the register of incidents, including the reasons for its application, in order to allow for scrutiny? • Is the necessity of the use of restraints discussed and assessed in individual cases by the prison administration retrospectively? • Are instruments of restraint used in order to address the risk of self-harm and suicide? Who takes the decision and based on what considerations? Are alternative ways considered and exploited before recourse is made to restraints? • Are injuries from the use of restraints recorded and treated? 3.4. Use during transfer While the use of instruments of restraints can be justified as a precaution against escape during a transfer (eg. from the police station to a penitentiary facility, to court or hospital), they should ‘not be used as a matter of course when a prisoner is being transferred from one location to another, either within a prison or outside the prison. In each case, their use should be based on an individual assessment of the risk posed by the prisoner’.50 A male prisoner in France, aged 74, was taken to hospital for an operation. Prison staff were issued with instructions that he should be monitored under normal supervision, at the discretion of the senior escorting officer. After being transported to the hospital in handcuffs he remained handcuffed for the rest of the day. During the night he was restrained by a chain attached to his ankles and to the bedpost, making any movement difficult or painful and sleep impossible.51 44. Asian Human Rights Commission, ‘Chained and segregated in Korean prisons’. Available at: http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/journalsmagazines/article2/0204/chained-and-segregated-in-korean-prisons <accessed 22 October 2013> 45. World Health Organization/International Association for Suicide Prevention, Preventing suicide in jails and prisons, 2007. 46. See, for example, UN Committee against Torture, Concluding observations: New Zealand, 2009, CAT/C/NZL/CO/5, para. 9; European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), 2nd General Report on the CPT’s activities 1991, para. 53; UNODC, Handbook on Prisoners with Special Needs, 2009, p74. 47. CAT/OP/BEN/1, para. 107, op.cit. 48. Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture, Visit to Pakistan, 15 October 1996, E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.2, paras. 54 and 56. 49. 2nd General Report on the CPT’s activities 1991, para. 53, op.cit. 50. Coyle A, A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management, 2009, p65. 51. European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), Hénaf v France (No. 65436/01), 27 November 2003. 6 | Penal Reform International | Instruments of restraint: Addressing risk factors to prevent torture and ill-treatment