CAT/C/VNM/CO/1 Nelson Mandela Rules, and consider using alternatives to imprisonment in conformity with the Tokyo Rules in order to decrease the prison population; (b) Abolish the practice of using poor conditions of detention as an additional punishment for inmates, and ensure that death row prisoners are subjected to the same regime as other inmates; (c) Establish strict rules for the use of “security rooms” and “disciplinary rooms”, refrain from corporal punishment, shackling and harsh disciplinary measures and inform prison staff that they and prisoners acting under their instructions will be held accountable for committing acts of ill-treatment and torture; (d) Avoid using punitive transfers to separate prisoners from their families; (e) Ensure sufficient numbers and capacity of prison staff to manage penitentiary institutions; (f) Ensure by means of rigorous stock management that prison staff do not steal food and personal items sent to prisoners by their families, that prisoners receive adequate medical care and medication and that prison staff do not deliberately withhold from prisoners medication sent by their families; (g) Hire additional medical doctors and nurses who are competent and committed to carrying out their jobs and ensure prompt referrals and ambulances to transport prisoners to specialist health care outside detention facilities; (h) Ensure that prison medical staff do not deliberately withhold medical treatment or act negligently and ensure the independence of the doctors employed by penitentiary institutions; (i) Prevent prisoners from contracting infectious diseases during their imprisonment, including by separating healthy prisoners from those suffering from severe contagious diseases; (j) Introduce health screening of inmates upon admission to places of detention, including ensuring the early identification of cases of ill-treatment and torture, and take steps to provide adequate treatment to persons infected with HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and tuberculosis and also to persons with psychosocial disabilities; (k) Ensure that no prisoners, including dissident prisoners, are subjected to torture or the administering of unspecified drugs and medication that have adverse effects on their health. Prisoners on death row 32. The Committee is concerned about reports of the physical and psychological suffering that persons sentenced to the death penalty have experienced as a result of their particularly harsh conditions of detention, which may amount to torture or ill-treatment, including solitary confinement in unventilated cells, inadequate food and drink, being shackled 24 hours a day and being subjected to physical abuse, and that such prisoners often commit suicide and develop psychological disorders as a result (arts. 2, 11 and 16). 33. The State party should take urgent measures to render the material conditions of detention of persons sentenced to death equivalent to those of other prisoners, in line with the Nelson Mandela Rules, including access to adequate food and drink and meaningful social contacts, without restraints, and to protect them against physical abuse. Monitoring of places of detention 34. The Committee is concerned that the State party has not established a national system to independently monitor and inspect all places of detention and receive complaints. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned at the absence of visits by international organizations, including the lack of access to prisons by the International Committee of the Red Cross (arts. 2, 11–13 and 16). 10