In view of the total reliance of detainees on prison authorities for their basic needs, the provision of clean water at all times and good quality food is essential to maintaining their health and strength.

In light of the number of hours spent in cells or dormitories on a daily basis, the conditions of accommodation have a considerable impact on the experience of deprivation of liberty.

The right of detainees to access the outside world implies regular and meaningful access to news, information and entertainment that is freely available outside detention.

Detention – particularly the initial days - can be a very traumatic experience for foreign national prisoners.

All detainees have the right to send and receive mail and to make and receive telephone calls, except in very specific situations.

When someone is deprived of his or her liberty, family connections often take on a heightened importance. Family members can play a vital emotional and material support role to detainees in difficult times.

Solitary confinement consists in keeping an inmate alone in a cell for over 22 hours a day.  Because of the harmful effect on the person’s physical and mental well-being, solitary confinement should only be used in exceptional circumstances.

The disciplinary regime establishes the rules of prison life by listing breaches of the internal regulations and the sanctions associated with these.

Means of restraint are instruments intended to restrain or temporarily limit the freedom of movement of a person without injuring him/her, for example, handcuffs, straps, straitjackets, or restraining beds.

In prisons, recourse to force must always be the exception and it must always be used as a last resort. To prevent any abuse, recourse to force must respect the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality.