CAT/C/39/2 page 25 (b) Police stations 89. Police stations (Delegacias) are run by the civil police and are directed by a delegado, who is a senior civil police official with a law degree. The Committee members visited the so-called deactivated police stations that serve the public and where persons under arrest are only held up to 24 hours, as well as police lock-ups that have not been decommissioned and continue to operate as public jails. 90. In principle, a person may be held in a police lock-up for a maximum period of 24 hours after which a judge must issue a provisional detention order and the person should be transferred to a provisional detention centre. Detainees awaiting trial should be held in pre-trial or remand centres, commonly known as cadeias publicas. In order for a detainee to be transferred to a penitentiary facility, an authorization from the penitentiary authorities is required. However, it appears that because the penitentiary facilities are already overcrowded and risks of riots are high, transfer authorizations to these facilities are not always issued. 91. The Committee members observed that a large number of detainees continue to be held in police stations instead of being transferred to pre-trial detention centres and prisons. Under these circumstances, the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code regarding the separation of detainees according to their legal status, i.e. awaiting trial or convicted, are clearly violated. Police officers are obliged to assume new functions as prison guards in police stations, without having received any training in this respect. Moreover, the fact that the civil police are in charge of the preliminary investigations and that police lock-ups are guarded by the civil police, reportedly facilitates the abuse of provisional detainees by police investigators seeking to obtain confessions or any other relevant information. 92. The Committee members observed that no police stations that operated as public jails were equipped for long periods of detention, given that the infrastructures were inadequate and the material conditions degrading. Severe overcrowding was widespread. The Committee members observed that detainees held in public jails are deprived of many of their rights. For instance, it is impossible for detainees to reduce their sentences through work, an entitlement provided for by law. Also, they do not have access to any recreational activities and ordinarily cannot receive conjugal visits. Regular visits seem very difficult and discouraged. 93. The Committee members found that in most cases detainees were not examined by a doctor after arrest, it being up to the arresting officer to decide if such an examination was necessary. There is no systematic examination of detainees upon arrest, sentence, when transferred between centres or when released. São Paulo 94. On 19 July 2005, the Committee members visited the 4th District Police Station in São Paulo, where approximately 66 detainees accused of sexual crimes were being held in a public jail. The Committee members were informed that the public jail of this police station was currently being decommissioned; hence no new detainees had come in since 2003. Due to extreme conditions of overcrowding, the Committee members observed that a tetraplegic detainee was being held in the corridor outside the cell.