CAT/C/39/2 page 72 302. In what regards its multi-sectorial action, the Ministry of Justice has been concluding technical cooperation and protocols of intention with other ministries, with a view to establishing integrated public policies for the Penitentiary System. The National Health Plan in the penitentiary system continued in 2006 in partnership with the Ministry of Health. There are one hundred and forty (140) teams registered in ten (10) states, for basic health care of inmates and interns. 303. Interministerial Act (Portaria) 1.777, of 9 September 2003 instituted the National Health Plan in the Penitentiary System (PNSSP). This Plan aims at provide access to the prison population to the Unified Health System (SUS) through basic health care actions and services at the prison units and the use of the next levels of health care. Actions for the promotion of health and for care at the basic level to be undertaken at the prison units regard oral health, women’s health, sexually communicable diseases and AIDS, mental health, hepatitis, TB, hypertension, diabetes, and hanseniasis, besides basic pharmaceutical assistance vaccines and laboratory examinations. 304. A mechanism for the financing and permanent evaluation of the work performed by the team in those spaces has been put in place. It should be stressed that the qualification of states to be included in the PNSSP must be initiated by the federated units themselves. To prevent the absence of follow-up to the intention to adhere, the Ministry of Health established standards for inclusion through Portaria 1.777. 305. Another worthy initiative is the Protocol of Intention concluded with the Ministry of Education. Since 2005 the Ministries of Justice and Education have been working in tandem to establish jointly a public policy turned towards teaching the prison population to read and write and to improve their level of instruction in general. This action is extended to those leaving prison, also within the policy of education for young people and adults. This joint endeavor generated Resolution 23/2005 by the “Brazil Read and Write Program”, making the prison population one of the priority targets of the country’s largest alphabetization program. 306. This interministerial partnership is linked to a political action for the redemption of the duration of punishment through education. Demarches are under way at the National Congress to obtain approval for the draft bill that would include such a provision in the Penal Execution Law. “189. The Committee members noted that the Government of Brazil has attempted to reduce overcrowding by building more detention centres, which in turn, have become overcrowded in a short period of time. Alternative solutions must be sought as a matter of extreme urgency. Overcrowding causes irreparable physical and psychological damage to detainees. As long as this problem is not solved, the State will be responsible for tolerating an inhuman situation in many detention centres.” 307. As expressed in the comment to paragraphs 183 and 188, the Brazilian Government has been investing in actions to encourage the application of sentences that restrict rights, to replace sentences that restrict freedom, and has also invested in the construction of new units in the prison system.