A/HRC/31/57 (d) Review laws, criminal procedures and judicial practices to ensure that they take full account of women’s backgrounds, including histories of prior abuse, mental health problems and substance abuse, and parental and other caretaker responsibilities in the allocation of sentences and sentence planning; (e) Divert women and girls away from the criminal justice system and towards appropriate services and programmes, whenever appropriate, and implement alternatives to detention such as absolute or conditional discharge, verbal sanctions, arbitrated settlements, restitution to the victim or a compensation order, community service orders, victim-offender mediation, family group conferences, sentencing circles, drug rehabilitation programmes and other restorative processes, services and programmes; (f) Provide for non-custodial means of protection, such as shelters and other community-based alternatives, and guarantee that the placement of women in detention centres for protection — only where necessary and expressly requested by the woman in question — will be temporary, subject to supervision and competent authorities and never continued against their will; (g) Ensure that male and female detainees are separated, including during transport; that female detainees are supervised and attended to only by female staff; and that escorts of female prisoners at least include female officers; (h) Immediately cease the practice of shackling and handcuffing of pregnant women and women in labour and of women immediately after childbirth; (i) Absolutely prohibit the use of solitary confinement on pregnant and breastfeeding women, mothers with young children, women suffering from mental or physical disabilities and girls under 18 years of age and as a measure of “protection”; (j) Ensure that strip and invasive body searches are conducted only when necessary and appropriate, by staff of the same gender with sufficient medical knowledge and skill to perform the search safely and respect the individual’s privacy and dignity and in two steps (to ensure that the detainee is never fully unclothed), and to prohibit body searches of females by male staff; (k) Account for women’s gender-specific health-care needs and provide individualized primary and specialist care, including comprehensive and detailed screenings and prerelease preparations, in a holistic and humane manner, in line with the Bangkok Rules; provide preventive and gender-sensitive care designed to safeguard women’s privacy and dignity, including as regards mental health, sexual and reproductive health, HIV prevention and treatment and substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation programmes; and ensure that female detainees are examined and treated by female health-care professionals if they so request, except in emergency situations, when female staff should be present; (l) Ensure adequate sanitation standards and provide for facilities and materials that meet women’s specific hygiene needs, such as sanitary towels at no cost, and clean water, including during transport; (m) Prohibit forced and coerced pregnancy tests and obtain full, free and informed consent for such tests, and prohibit virginity testing under all circumstances; (n) Consider the imprisonment of pregnant women and women with young children only when other alternatives are unavoidable or unsuitable; ensure that sentencing policies and practices respect the best interests of the child, including the need to maintain direct contact with mothers; assist female offenders with tools to 20