DOC/OS(XXXIII)/324c/I 40 At Oluno Rehabilitation Centre some prisoners volunteered to undergo an AIDS test but were refused the test by the prison medical service who argued that voluntary HIV testing is not part of the prison's aim to combat AIDS. At Odangwa police station, prisoners brought to the attention of the Special Rapporteur's delegation one aspect of the behaviour of police staff which favours the transmission of the AIDS virus. In fact, the police officers in this station often use handcuffs on the prisoners, which are blood stained from the person who last used them. This happens because the handcuffs are closed very tight when the police think the prisoner might escape. At Grootfontein prison no activity to raise awareness among inmates about AIDS has begun. However, the nurse told us that he had just finished a 6-weeks training course after which he should be capable of carrying out such an activity within the prison. He was only waiting to receive the necessary educational material. At Hardap prison some inmates started drama groups to raise awareness about AIDS among their colleagues. Their action complements the awareness raising actions carried out by professional educators on AIDS. In spite of all these efforts, prisoners with AIDS continue to be put in solitary confinement in this prison, in violation of their right to non-discrimination due to their serologic status. The mentally ill The medical management of mentally ill prisoners in prisons in the interior of the country leaves much to be desired. It appears that these patients, who have been seen by a psychiatrist in Windhoek only once or twice since their detention, which could sometimes be five years earlier, have no medical follow-up where they now are for lack of qualified medical staff (psychiatrists) in hospitals in the countryside. Worse still, the legal psychiatrist in Windhoek, who is overwhelmed with the excessive number of prisoners hospitalised in his clinic or needing his services at the police station, has no statistics on this group of sick people nor a programme of follow up and monitoring . He told the delegation that in the near future a course of initiation in medical care for psychiatric patients was going to be organised for some doctors who work in the countryside. In all, the release of 25 prisoners with psychiatric problems for reasons of health has been recommended by the legal psychiatrist since January 2000. The 18 patients who are in the rehabilitation unit should all benefit from the doctor's recommendation to be sent back soon to their families for reintroduction into society. According to the legal psychiatrist, the situation of overcrowding in his department and the long list of patients who wait in different prisons for their transfer to this department should improve if magistrates worked on reclassifying so-called "State President Decision Patients", so that petty offenders might be acquitted and followed up medically outside prison. At Rundu police station, for instance, there were five mentally ill patients of whom two had fallen ill over the past six months. Neither of the two recently mentally ill patients have had a chance to be seen by the psychiatrist so far. Of the three others, there was a juvenile who was in prison for four years for having murdered his mother. His last visit to the psychiatrist was 16 months ago. He receives no treatment and the prison authorities still consider him to be a mentally ill patient awaiting transfer to the psychiatric clinic of Windhoek. Another mentally ill patient in the group had involuntarily attracted the attention of the delegation by his cries and threats against the police officers. In fact, this detainee had not been isolated for lack of space and the police authorities were concerned that he would one day become aggressive.