CAT/C/39/2 page 64 269. The results reached in Pernambuco illustrate the efficacy of the adoption of those measures. During the thirteen months of their operation the imprisonment of 869 persons was avoided. 270. Another measure created to expand debate on the issue is the holding of the National Congress on the Execution of Alternative Sentences and Measures (CONEPA). The objective of CONEPA is the debate of central issues on the national reality concerning the alternative penal execution and to produce strategic bases and fundamental guidance of a sustainable policy of stimulus to alternative sentencing and measures in Brazil. This entails the necessary cooperation between the State, through the institutions that make up the justice system - Judiciary Branch, Public Prosecutor Office, and Public Defender Office - the Executive Branch, civil society and the media. The Congress is an annual event and the third one will take place in November this year, in the state of Minas Gerais. 271. Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice created the National Commission on Alternative Sentencing, an agency dedicated to dialogue with the states to divulge the application of alternative measures. 272. The restructuring of the National Penitentiary Department, with the creation of the General Coordination of Alternative Sentencing, is also an important factor to denote the relevance of this issue for the Brazilian Government. 273. All actions described above resulted in the growth of the application of alternative sentences in Brazil: in 2002, 21.560 persons served alternative sentences or were subjected to alternative measures; the estimate number for the end of 2006 is around 170.000 persons. These numbers - a growth by almost 700% in four years - attest to the success of the policy of expansion and acceptance of alternative sentences and measures by the agencies charged with penal execution and the society in general. 274. Mention should also be made to the enactment of Law no. 10.259/2001, which besides having created the Special Federal Criminal Courts also expanded the range of crimes subject to the application of alternative sentences, by establishing a new paradigm for crimes of lesser offensive potential, now defined as those crimes for which the maximum sanction is under two years of incarceration or fine. “184. The Committee members were concerned at comments made by high-level Government officials; these included the opinion that juvenile second-time offenders should not be protected under the Statute of the Child and Adolescent and that police officers who commit a crime of torture should not be treated in the same way as civilians who commit such a crime, because the former can be integrated into society more easily, given that they are trained.” 275. The Brazilian Government wishes to reiterate its full commitment to the implementation and the strictest compliance with the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent and to the punishment of police officers indicted and convicted for the crime of torture. It does not recognize, therefore, contrary statements by any individuals in authority at any level of the Federation.