To select people on a random sampling basis, the Prison Study Team visited every ward where prisoners of relevant detention statuses were held, informed its occupants about the Prison Study and invited inmates to volunteer to complete the questionnaires. Of those who volunteered, the required number was randomly chosen if the number of volunteers exceeded the number required. The prisons would provide the Commission with a large open space, most often the Buddhist temple, where questionnaires were administered in batches. It would take approximately 120 minutes to administer the questionnaire to one batch of prisoners. During prisoners’ lunch hours – which is between 1230h and 1400h – when prisoners are expected to remain locked in their wards to enable officers to also have lunch, the Commission’s work had to be halted in certain prisons. Due to the sensitive and complex nature of the prison environment, the Commission had to be mindful of and devise strategies to deal with a number of security issues when administering questionnaires. For example, condemned prisoners and special prisoners were not allowed to be removed from their wards and mixed with other inmates, hence questionnaires had to be administered to those prisoners in their wards. Certain prisons, such as the Pallekele Closed Prison, are quite vast with wards situated far from each other, and the Prison Study Team had to ensure inmates from every ward had the opportunity to volunteer to complete a questionnaire, which meant it took longer to administer the questionnaires since long distances had to be covered to access each ward. Questionnaires were available in English, Sinhala and Tamil, and where inmates could not read, write or see clearly, members of the Prison Study Team offered their assistance upon request. Prison officers were requested to remain at a distance and inmates were requested not to discuss and compare answers when completing the questionnaire. Some prisons held less than 125 inmates and hence a total of 125 questionnaires would not be completed in those prisons. Sometimes inmates would not be available to complete questionnaires, as they were away at court or hospital visit or unable to leave their duties at work parties, which prevented all inmates from having the opportunity to participate in completing questionnaires. A total of 2881 questionnaires were administered at nineteen institutions. The number of female questionnaires totaled 547 from the ten institutions of the sample of prisons at which female prisoners were held. The total number of PTA questionnaires conducted was eightyseven of which two were completed by female detainees. Table 3.1 Total number of questionnaires administered Total number of questionnaires 2881 Total number of questionnaires completed by male prisoners Total number of questionnaires completed by female prisoners 2334 547 10