CAT/C/CYP/CO/4 human-rights-based approach. The Committee remains concerned, however, at the high number of deaths in custody, especially suicides, as well as the incidents of inter-prisoner violence, including gang rape, with the connivance of prison guards. The Committee is further concerned by information about obstacles that impede Turkish Cypriot prisoners detained in the southern part of the island receiving visits from family and friends. As acknowledged by the State party, the Prison Law and Regulations still permit the imposition, as a disciplinary punishment, of confinement to special isolation cells for up to 60 days or confinement to a personal cell for up to 90 days. Moreover, the Committee takes into account reports that allege the use of cellular confinement as an informal punishment without procedure, as well as on the imposition of provisional disciplinary confinement for several days after an alleged commission of a disciplinary offence (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The State party should continue its efforts to bring the conditions of detention in places of deprivation of liberty into line with the appropriate provisions of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which are currently under revision, in particular by: (a) Implementing effectively the measures designed to reduce overcrowding to a minimum, particularly through the wider application of non-custodial measures as an alternative to imprisonment, in the light of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules); (b) Ensuring: (i) that all incidents of death, suicide, attempted suicide and violence in custody are reported to central authorities for monitoring purposes; (ii) that all cases are effectively and independently investigated and, on a finding of criminal responsibility, lead to a penalty proportional to the gravity of the offence; (iii) enhanced monitoring and detection of at-risk detainees, adopting preventive measures regarding the risk of suicide and inter-prisoner violence, including procedures for management of the cases and increasing the number of prison staff; and (iv) continuous evaluation of the impact of the current measures to prevent suicide and inter-prisoner violence, with a view to increasing their efficiency; (c) Revising the Prison Law and Regulations in order to ensure that solitary confinement: (i) is never applied to juveniles in conflict with the law or to persons with psychosocial disabilities and (ii) remains a measure of last resort, imposed for as short a time as possible, under strict supervision and judicial review. The State party should establish clear and specific criteria for decisions on isolation and ensure that detainees maintain social contact while in solitary confinement. The practice of imposing informal disciplinary isolation should be strictly prohibited; (d) Giving all reasonable facilities to all detainees for receiving visits from their family and friends, in accordance with international standards. Detention of asylum seekers 16. The Committee is concerned that, although the Refugee Law permits the detention of asylum seekers only in exceptional cases and for a maximum of 32 days, in the majority of cases asylum seekers are detained under the Aliens and Immigration Law as undocumented immigrants, or for minor offences, and remain detained for protracted periods of time during the whole status determination procedure. The Committee notes further that asylum seekers are also detained when their asylum claims are refused at the administrative level but are pending judicial review. That situation prompted various hunger strikes by Syrian refugees in 2013 and incidents of suicide in protest against their detention (arts. 11 and 16). The Committee urges the State party to ensure that persons in need of international protection, including those fleeing indiscriminate violence, are not detained or, if at 7