CAT/C/UZB/CO/5 concerned at reports that authorities have refused to release prisoners who have completed their sentences on alleged health grounds. 39. While welcoming the closure of Jaslyk penitentiary colony as a high-security prison as the result of the presidential decree dated 2 August 2019, the Committee is concerned at reports that the facility has been transferred to the control of Karakalpakstan authorities who may use it as a pretrial detention facility. The Committee regrets that, although the State party provided the capacity and occupancy rates for Jaslyk colony to the Committee, it stated that capacity and occupancy rates of other places of detention in the State party were confidential (arts. 2, 11–14 and 16). 40. The State party should: (a) Undertake comprehensive reform of the penitentiary system in the State party and transfer control over the penitentiary system from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Justice, and should includes efforts to: (i) Strengthen the independence of penitentiary medical staff; (ii) Transfer the competence of penitentiary medical staff to the authority of the Ministry of Health; (iii) Provide prisoners with adequate health care and access to medicine; (iv) Cease the practice of subjecting prisoners to forced labour; (v) Bring conditions in all places of detention fully in line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules); (b) Ensure that article 221 of the criminal code is not used to extend arbitrarily the sentences of prisoners who are nearing release; (c) Ensure that prisoners who have completed their sentences are not denied the ability to exit the penitentiary system on spurious health grounds; (d) Ensure that Jaslyk prison – which a former Special Rapporteur described, on the basis of its location, as creating conditions of detention amounting to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment for inmates and their relatives – is permanently closed and no longer used as a place of detention, including for pretrial detainees, by any authority in the State party; (e) Conduct an independent inquiry into allegations of torture and illtreatment at the Jaslyk facility, ensure that victims of torture and ill-treatment obtain redress and allow public access to the prison archives; (f) Ensure that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment in places of detention are promptly, effectively and impartially investigated and that perpetrators are prosecuted, including by ensuring that family members are permitted the possibility of carrying out independent forensic examinations in all cases of death in custody; (g) Collect and publish data on the locations, capacity and occupancy rates, and the numbers of convicted and remand detainees in all places of detention in the State party, as well as on the number and causes of deaths in custody. Complaints mechanism and independent monitoring of places of detention 41. The Committee notes the information provided by the State party indicating that places of deprivation of liberty are reportedly visited by procurators and supervisory procurators, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the human rights commissioner (ombudsman), civil society organizations, representatives of foreign diplomatic missions, the media and foundations. However, the Committee is concerned that the official entities empowered to monitor and to receive complaints about torture and illtreatment in places of deprivation of liberty reportedly continue to be ineffective and lack independence. 42. The Committee is alarmed that the ombudsman, who is accountable to the parliament, reportedly refers all allegations of torture to the procuratorial authorities and the 10