themselves and provide information on the purpose of the visit, and later get general information about the establishment. After the preliminary talk with the management, the buildings of the establishment are visited. During this the material condition of the establishment – the size, capacity and state of cells and rooms, actual placement, light, ventilation, furniture supply, personal hygiene and sanitary conditions, and food – is assessed, along with an investigation of medical treatment etc. After that, the documents are reviewed and detainees are individually and confidentially interviewed (such talks can be held in groups as well, it is decided by the NPG itself). Talks with the staff of the establishment are also one of the necessary issues of a visit. In order to assess the treatment of persons responsible for the detainees, the NPG members organise interviews with the personnel. In some cases special surveys are used for prison staff together with the mentioned talks. At the end of the visit there is held a final talk with the management of the establishment and information provided on the findings of the NPG. By providing recommendations their attention is driven to the issues that can possibly be solved immediately. At the same time it is informed that the senior management of this body will be notified regarding the findings. From the point of view of the Azerbaijani NPM, the post-visit activities stage is more important than the visit itself. As the objective of the NPM is not only conducting visits to places of deprivation of liberty, visits are a beginning of the process aimed at the improvement of the treatment of and conditions for the people deprived of their liberty. Thus a report on the findings of the visit is prepared after undertaking the visit and recommendations to ameliorate the treatment and conditions are prepared and submitted to the relevant ministries. Usually, when the NPG deems it necessary, soon after the visit in order to check if the provided recommendations are implemented, follow-up visit day is scheduled and undertaken. In 2014, the NPG conducted 365 visits, out of which 267 were scheduled and 98 were ad-hoc visits. Out of the mentioned visits, 219 visits were carried out on the establishments of the MIA, 112 to the establishments of the MJ, 3 to the establishments of the MNS, 4 to the establishments of the MD, 2 to the establishments of the SMS, 4 to the establishments of the MH, 10 to the establishments of the MLSPP, 8 to the establishments of the ME, and 3 to the establishments of local executive authorities.15 During the visits, private talks were conducted with 237 detainees kept in temporary detention places, 1030 detainees kept in investigation isolators and 15 See: Appendix 1 13