Detention Monitoring Tool: Staff working conditions

Prison officers come into contact with prisoners on a daily basis and have almost absolute power over detainees who rely on them for their basic needs. The way prison officers perceive their working conditions how they are treated by managers and colleagues has a significant impact on the atmosphere in detention and the treatment of prisoners and is a risk factor for torture and ill-treatment.

This Factsheet:

• lists the relevant international standards
• identifies types and situations of risk (eg institutional culture, recruitment and training, conditions of service, staff well-being)
• provides checklists of questions that monitoring bodies can ask for each risk factor
• suggests what monitoring bodies can do.

The Factsheet is part of PRI/APT’s Detention Monitoring Tool, which aims to provide analysis and practical guidance to help monitoring bodies, including National Preventive Mechanisms, to fulfil their preventive mandate as effectively as possible when visiting police facilities or prisons. The Tool seeks to support such bodies in addressing systemic risk factors that contribute to an environment where torture or other ill-treatment occurs.