(d) Consideration should be given to ways of simplifying the law and judicial procedure so as to make it possible for the sentence enforcement system to be based exclusively on the conduct of prisoners. This would not only help reduce prison overcrowding but would also provide legal safeguards and reduce opportunities for arbitrariness and corruption. 48.In the course of meetings with the authorities, the latter made frequent reference to the extreme slowness with which the judiciary dealt with pending cases. The SPT was able to confirm these allegations in practice, having regard to the high proportion of prisoners (approximately 80 per cent) who find themselves held on trial — sometimes over a period of several years — without having been convicted, and in company with convicted persons. In this regard, the SPT wishes to stress that it is the right of a person detained on a criminal charge to be tried within a reasonable time or to be released pending trial. The SPT notes in particular that article 136 of the Paraguayan Code of Criminal Procedure fixes the maximum duration of judicial procedures at three years. The SPT is conscious of the problems of lack of resources and excessive workload affecting the judiciary. However, where such delays are caused by a lack of resources, to the extent possible supplementary budgetary resources should be allocated for the administration of justice. The SPT recommends that the judiciary should be granted additional budgetary resources for allocation to the criminal courts so that they may effectively discharge their task of administering justice. 49. The SPT likewise recommends that a nationwide census of the prison population should be undertaken to determine the number of detainees who have been held on trial for over three years, in violation of the legal maximum period. 50.Legal assistance. The SPT believes that free, professional legal assistance is a mechanism that contributes to the prevention of torture and ill-treatment through the exercise of due process and the rights of the defence. In adversarial criminal proceedings it is essential to ensure effective equality of arms between the public defender and the prosecution. The SPT was informed of the budgetary and staffing constraints weighing upon the Office of the Public Defender. For example, the SPT was told by Office officials that some public defenders have to deal with an average of 300 cases; and in the case of the public defender in Ciudad del Este the number of cases has reached 1,500. The SPT considers that such an excessive caseload is incompatible with the effective defence of persons deprived of their liberty. This view was confirmed in numerous interviews with persons deprived of their liberty and with police and prison authorities and representatives of civil society. 51.Most of the prison inmates interviewed said that they were unaware of the status of their cases, and that they had not spoken with their public defenders for months or years. All those interviewed said that their public defenders never entered the prison blocks to check on the conditions of detention. 52.The SPT considers that the right to counsel from the very outset of detention is a fundamental safeguard for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. The SPT emphasizes that the Office of the Public Defender should be functionally independent and financially autonomous. In view of the current situation of the Office of the Public Defender, the SPT calls upon the State to provide information on how it plans, within a framework of institutional independence and autonomy, to increase the human and financial resources of the Office to enable it to guarantee free, effective and comprehensive legal assistance for all persons deprived of their liberty who require it, as from the moment of their detention. In this connection, the SPT requests a copy of the draft law on the public defenders system, together with information on the state of progress on this draft. 53.Public Prosecutor ’ s Office. The Code of Criminal Procedure provides that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for handling the investigation of all punishable acts and instigating public criminal proceedings in respect of crimes such as torture.The SPT received information from the Human Rights Department of the Public Prosecutor’s Office concerning cases involving the investigation of human rights offences received by the Office at the national level between 2000 and 2008. According to this information, 230 — or 16 per cent — of the 1,464 registered cases involved procedures relating to the crime of torture. The Prosecutor’s Office did not supply information on the status of those procedures nor on the judgement reached in the majority (60 per cent) of the cases involving torture. Most of the cases on which information on their status was made available turned out to have been placed on file or dismissed. Only 1 out of the 230 cases had resulted in a conviction. 54.The SPT welcomes the fact that Human Rights Department is compiling statistical data on cases involving human rights violations. However, it is concerned at the large number of cases in which the stage in the procedure reached is not known. It is also concerned that only 1 of the 230 reported instances of torture have resulted in a conviction. 55.The Public Prosecutor’s Office also has an important role to play in the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. It has powers of supervision under article 24 of (Organization) Act 1562/2000, which provides that prosecuting officers attending police stations should check the physical condition of the accused and conditions in the place of detention. Finally, article 15 of the same Act stipulates that the Public Prosecutor’s Office should collaborate with the sentence enforcement judge in his task of monitoring compliance with the law by the prisons system and consistency with the constitutional aims of the punishment and the rights of the prisoner. The SPT requests information on the way in which the Public Prosecutor ’ s Office in practice discharges its supervisory functions with regard to both police stations and prisons. In particular, it wishes to have information on the frequency with which visits to these premises take place, whether there are any internal guidelines on how these visits are to be carried out, whether reports of the observations made during the visits are produced and, as appropriate, to whom such reports are submitted, and the number of complaints made by the Public Prosecutor ’ s Office as a consequence of these visits. III.National Preventive Mechanism (Mecanismo nacional de prevención – MNP) 56.The SPT expresses its satisfaction at the process that led to the adoption of the draft legislation setting up the National Preventive