27 DOC/OS(XXXIII)/324c/I Contacts with the outside world In prisons, the visiting regime differs according to the rating of prisoners. Those on remand have the right to receive visits from Monday to Friday, from 08:00 am to 12:00 am. The regime for convicted prisoners is in accordance with their grade. They may receive visitors on Saturday and Sunday, as follows: Grade Number of visits Number of persons at Length of the visit each visit A 3 per month 2 45 minutes B 2 per month 2 30 minutes C 1 per month 2 30 minutes D 1 every two months 2 30 minutes Grade A prisoners are allowed to receive their families in a room without any separation between them (contact visit). Prisoners on remand held in prison do not have the right to receive their families whereas they would be allowed to do so if they were being held in a police station. It should be noted that some inmates no longer receive any visits as their families either tire of coming (especially for prisoners with long term sentences), live too far away (Walvis Bay prison, remand prisoners in Grootfontein prison, juvenile detention centre E. Nepemba) or have sometimes been bullied by the prison staff and do not want to come back (Hardap). The authorities have been forced to relax the rules in order to facilitate visits when families come from far away. As a result convicted prisoners at Omaruru and Walvis Bay prisons may exceptionally receive visits on days other than the prescribed ones. However, some inmates at Omaruru and Oluno complained that their visits were only 5 to 15 minutes long instead of the regular 30 minutes. Several prisoners complained about how far away the prison was from their homes (Walvis Bay, Windhoek and Oluno prisons). In general, logbooks are kept in which the date and length of visits, etc. for each detainee are entered. Prisoners also have the right to write and to receive letters. The extent of this right however depends on the prisoners' grade. Only the letters sent to the Ombudsman's office are not censored. Inmates may send their letters without paying for postage to any address in Namibia. Foreign prisoners complained about not having the means to pay for stamps to send their letters abroad. They also complained about being at a disadvantage regarding contact with the outside world as the postal services in their countries do not always work and they are not allowed to call their families by telephone even when they have the means to pay for the calls. Some prisoners in Mariental, Walvis Bay and Oluno prisons alleged that their letters to the Ombudsman were sometimes opened and read by others. This allegation was on the basis that they suffered reprisals after having written the letters. The inmates have the right to receive newspapers from their families (two per month at Walvis Bay, one per month at Oluno). Only grade A prisoners are allowed to keep a radio in prison. The fact that the others do not have this right works against maintaining contact with the outside world. It would be relatively simple to enable all the prisoners to listen to the radio through an interphone system. It should be noted that at Omaruru prison the radio was broadcasting through interphones during the Special Rapporteur's visit. However, prisoners said that it was a rare occurrence which would probably stop after the Special Rapporteur's visit.