with a view to their social rehabilitation”.140 Classification deals with the categorization of individuals to enable the most effective allocation to an appropriate security regime and to ensure this aligns with the placement in a prison setting with relevant resources.141 Effective security classification makes it easier for prison administrations to manage staff responsibilities, organize staffing schedules and manage other resources. It also enables them to better manage daily prison life, including out-of-cell time and recreational and vocational activities. Conversely, if prisoners are not properly classified, they may be placed in prisons that are not equipped to meet their particular needs, including their social, legal, health-care and rehabilitation needs. In this way, an effective classification system is crucial to the protection of the human rights of prisoners, and “the ability to individualize case and sentence planning and the efficient use of limited correctional resources.”142 Prisoners should be classified and allocated according to the findings of their risk and needs assessments, in order to ensure that individualization of treatment is possible.143 This should similarly apply in the VERLT context.144 Risk and needs assessments are essential to evaluating the danger the individual poses to themself or to others, including to the overall safety and security of the prison and the risk of violence, escape, recidivism and instigating others, as well as to assessing their specific needs and vulnerabilities, including mental health conditions, previous instances of victimization and protection from potential violence.145 The assessment of a prisoner’s needs is crucial to the planning of rehabilitation programmes.146 The initial assessments should be carried out as soon as possible at admission,147 be individualized, and be regularly reviewed and updated through a participatory process.148 Assessments will also assist with evaluating the relevance of disengagement from VERLT interventions and the progress made, etc., so necessary adaptations can be made to the interventions and approaches.149 140 Ibid., Rule 93. 141 UNODC, Handbook on the Classification of Prisoners, (Vienna: UNODC, 2020), p. 33. See also section 2.2, regarding the placement of (suspected) violent extremist prisoners in relation to the wider prison population and each other: separation, isolation, concentration or dispersal or integration. 142 Ibid., p. 4. 143 UN Nelson Mandela Rules, op. cit., note 13, Rule 89. 144 Council of Europe, “Guidelines for Prison and Probation Services regarding Radicalisation and Violent Extremism”, op. cit., note 56, Guideline 20; UN Nelson Mandela Rules, op. cit., note 13, Rules 93-94. 145 UNODC, Handbook on the Classification of Prisoners, op. cit., note 141, pp. 48-49. For further reading on risk-need-responsivity model of prisoner assessment and rehabilitation, see p.. 38. Whereas risk and needs assessments are traditionally used by prison administrations to ensure a proper security classification and, therefore, ensure the highest possible safety and security within their facilities, the identification of potential risk or vulnerability to VERLT also bears an element of security and safety for the outside world, meaning society as a whole. Importantly however, a person’s risk to the public upon release should not be conflated with their classification denoting the risk they pose to prison safety and security. 146 ODIHR & PRI, Guidance Document on the Nelson Mandela Rules, op. cit., note 10, Chapter 1, para. 71. 147 Jim Murdoch and Vaclav Jiricka, “Combating Ill-Treatment in Prison – A Handbook for Prison Staff with Focus on the Prevention of Ill-Treatment in Prisons”, Council of Europe, April 2016. 148 For more on the risk assessment of high-risk prisoners or dangerous offenders see also: UNODC, “Handbook on the Management of High-Risk Prisoners”, 2016, p.34; and Council of Europe, “Recommendation CM/ REC (2014) 3 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States Concerning Dangerous Offenders”, 19 February 2014. See also, ODIHR & PRI, Guidance Document on the Nelson Mandela Rules, op. cit., note 10, Chapter 1. 149 Council of Europe, “Guidelines for Prison and Probation Services regarding Radicalisation and Violent Extremism”, op. cit., note 56, Guideline 18; Council of Europe, “Council of Europe Handbook”, op. cit., note 2, paras. 56, 58-59. 36