-32 authorities are protected from violence or intimidation by other prisoners, for example by placing the applicants in separate accommodation. • The authorities must deal with a prisoner’s request for a transfer with the necessary urgency and in a manner proportionate to the perceived risk faced by the person concerned. • Any transfers of persons in a situation of vulnerability should be part of a carefully designed strategy for dealing with inter-prisoner violence. When security and safety measures and regimes are applied, prisoners pay a heavy price, as these measures may result in involuntary separation from the general prison population and/or reduced activities programmes, compared to those available under the normal prison regime.41 Hence, special security and safety measures should be applied only if there is no other choice. Generally, prison authorities should therefore ‘strive to create environments in which all prisoners can be safe and free from abuse and should have a set of procedures that enable all prisoners to mix without fear of assault or other violence, namely to ensure that prisoners are able to contact staff at all times, including at night’,42 and allow prisoners to take part in daily activities as much as possible. In other words, all efforts should be made to ensure that the security and safety measures, including those taken for protective purposes, entail only the minimum necessary restriction and do not amount to a violation of the international standards on solitary confinement (see also in this series the Handbook on Solitary Confinement in Prison). 3.2.1.3. Instruments of restraint Other measures that may be adopted are means of restraints. All restraints that are inherently degrading (e.g. use of chains, irons and others) are absolutely prohibited, and restraints should never be used on women during labor, childbirth or immediately after childbirth.43 Both the European Prison Rules (EPR) and Mandela Rules make clear that 41. CPT, ‘Developments Concerning CPT Standards in Respect of Imprisonment: Extract from the 11th General Report of the CPT’ (2001) CPT/Inf(2001)16-part, § 27. 42. Commentary on Recommendation Rec(2006)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the European Prison Rules (2006) p 74 < https://rm.coe.int/european-prison-rules-978-92-8715982-3/16806ab9ae>; and the draft Commentary to the revised EPR (2020) <https://cdn.penalreform. org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/EPR-Commentary.pdf> p 32. 43. EPR Rules 68.5-68.6; see also Mandela Rules, Rule 47; UNGA, ‘United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders’, Res 65/229 of 21 December 2010 (Bangkok Rules) Rule 24.