This handbook is intended to assist everyone who has anything to do with prisons. Readers are likely to include government ministers whose portfolio covers parliamentary accountability for prisons, officials who work within Ministries of Justice and other ministries which have oversight of prison issues, as well as intergovernmental agencies such as the United Nations, the Organisation of American States, the African Union, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the World Health Organisation. It will also be of interest to bodies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, to a variety of non governmental organisations and groups from civil society which work in prisons. It should be made available where possible to prisoners. But its primary audience is intended to be those who work directly with prisons and prisoners. These include national and
regional prison administrators. Above all, it is intended for those who are actually employed in prisons and who deal with prisoners on a day to day basis.
