Usually, a prison officer acts as secretary to the prison visiting committee and he or she sometimes writes the report. This is unsatisfactory. Traditionally, the officer is present when prisoners are interviewed, which is also unsatisfactory. It means that the prison authority and the committee are working together and prisoners feel they cannot make proper complaints. Mountjoy Prison has managed to stop this procedure but I am not sure about the position in other prisons. It should be easy to discourage this undesirable practice. Prisoners do not want the authorities to know about their complaints.