CAT/C/39/2 page 34 trafficking. Visits take place three times a week. Conjugal visits are also allowed. The prison facilities include a school, theatre, various workshops and inmates publish a newspaper. 133. On 26 July 2005, the Committee members visited the Ary Franco Prison in Rio de Janeiro. Although the majority of the prison population (1,122) consisted of convicted detainees under a closed regime, there were also some pre-trial detainees. Groups of all the criminal gangs are present in the prison. Detainees have no access to education, given that there is no school. They do not have the possibility of working, although at the time of the visit there were 100 detainees who worked as cleaners. Food was cooked on the premises, rather than being brought in from an outside caterer. 134. The Committee members visited corridor A which was underground. Part of the corridor was reserved for foreign nationals, while Brazilian nationals occupied the rest. All foreign nationals had requested that they serve their sentence in their own country, except for one whose family lived in Brazil. They indicated that the hygienic and other conditions were poor, but that Brazilian nationals were treated much worse. The Committee members observed the extremely poor material conditions, which were particularly evident where the Brazilian nationals where held. Detainees complained that the lights went off frequently and hence, they were left in the dark. There was no natural light. Some cells were extremely overcrowded, with a significant shortage of sleeping space for the detainees. There were no mattresses. The Committee members also received requests from some of the detainees demanding that they be transferred to a different cell because they feared for their lives. Some of the detainees claimed to have served their terms but continued to be detained. The majority of the detainees complained that they had no legal assistance at all. They also complained that visitors were submitted to degrading treatment and punishment while being registered at the entrance. 3. Interviews with alleged victims of torture and medical findings 135. The Committee members also held confidential interviews with persons deprived of their liberty. Some of these interviews took place individually, while others took place collectively. However, all of them were carried out away from the hearing of those responsible for the detainees and confidentiality was respected at all times. 136. The interviewees were selected according to the following criteria: information had already been received to the effect that they had been tortured; and randomly, including on the basis of the most recent arrival or longest-serving in their respective places of detention. It was not possible to select them on account of the medical records kept in places of detention due to the fact that such records do not exist in all centres visited. 137. The medical expert, who was present during the interviews carried out in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, completed 19 clinical forensic examinations. Ages of examinees varied between 15 and 49 years old; of these, two were under the age of 20, seven between the ages of 21 and 30, three between the ages of 31 and 40, and seven above 40 years old. Seventeen of those examined were males and two were females. The time of detention varied from less than 24 hours (only one case) to approximately 16 years. Of the examined detainees, five were awaiting trial. The sentences being served by the convicted prisoners ranged from four to