Part II Preventing torture: NHRIs in action | Section III Acting as a control mechanism 1. Before the visit 1.1. Negotiating access Most NHRIs have some access to places of detention as part of their general mandate. When this is not the case, the NHRI will need to negotiate access directly with the relevant authorities. The best way of ensuring long-term access to places of detention is to establish a memorandum of understanding with the relevant ministries or government departments (usually the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice, although it may also extend to ministries of health, immigration, social care and others). The memorandum of understanding should explicitly guarantee the NHRI the powers it needs for effective monitoring (see above). In particular, it should include the guarantee of unrestricted access at any time and the ability to conduct interviews in private with detainees selected by the visiting team. 1.2. Establishing a monitoring programme In establishing a monitoring programme, NHRIs should first prepare a list all types of places of detention that should be visited. The list should include the type of facility (prison, pretrial detention facility, etc.), its holding capacity (official and actual) and its location. Ideally, NHRIs should visit all places where people are, or may be, deprived of their liberty: prisons, police stations, mental health institutions, juvenile detention facilities, military facilities, immigration detention centres and others. After compiling this initial list, NHRIs then need to select the places of detention that they intend to visit. This could include: • a cross-section of different categories of facilities by region or at the national level • a selection of places based on certain criteria, such as: - complaints received (or lack of complaints) - high levels of risks (those with vulnerable populations or known places of interrogation) - remote locations. As part of its 2004 report assessing the situation in prisons, the Consultative Council on Human Rights of Morocco established the following criteria to select the prisons that it would visit: • recently built prisons • prisons not visited since 1996 • severely overcrowded prisons • prisons in remote locations • two large capacity prisons • one prison that had experienced a fire. The programme of visits will also depend on the type and length of the visits that the NHRI intends to conduct. Ideally NHRIs should undertake a combination of in-depth visits, that last several days and analyse all aspects of conditions and treatment in a facility, as well as short, unannounced visits that provide a general overview of the detention situation. As part of a regular monitoring programme, it is important to determine how regularly different places of detention will be visited. Ideally, places of detention should be visited once a year and those facilities that present higher risks should be visited more frequently. Chapter 8: Monitoring places of detention | 85