CAT/C/39/2 page 32 122. They also visited the women’s cadeia publica Pinheiros IV. There were 1248 women housed in the provisional detention centre, although it can only accommodate 512. Furthermore, although the centre was only for provisional detention, there were 759 provisional detainees and 489 convicted prisoners. Not all the guards were women. The Committee members were informed that it is expected that the centre will become a pre-trial detention centre for men by the end of 2005. 123. Finally, the Committee members visited the Guarulhos prison in São Paulo. Ninety per cent of the prison population were pre-trial detainees. In fact, it was explained to the Committee members that the prison would be transformed into a provisional detention centre. There were a total of 2,007 persons held in the centre, which was designed to accommodate 1,170. There were 280 foreign nationals. The Committee members were shown several workshops where inmates can work. The Committee members noticed that the grounds around the cellblocks and inside the prisons were full of garbage. Prison officers explained that detainees threw the garbage out of their cells, so that when they were allowed out to pick it up, they could use the opportunity to pass information from block to block. Belo Horizonte 124. On 22 July 2005, the Committee members visited the Women’s Penitentiary in Belo Horizonte, which housed 158 inmates in a well-maintained and equipped facility. Inmates produced sports clothing and nurses uniforms, in part through an agreement with the Ministry of Sports, for which they receive a wage amounting to 75 per cent of the profit. All inmates live in pleasant surroundings and all of them work. There is capacity to isolate prisoners for behavioural reasons. This prison was dubbed a model prison for Brazil in 2002. There was no interview of any prisoner, but the conditions observed by the delegation prompted the question. Why could the conditions in this facility not be replicated in facilities holding male prisoners? Rio de Janeiro 125. On 23 July 2005, the Committee members also visited the Polinter remand centre in Rio de Janeiro. The conditions under which the detainees are kept were extremely poor and shocked the Committee members. At the time of the visit, the centre housed approximately 1,405 men detained in the basement of the police station designed to accommodate 500 detainees. The sub-delegado explained that until recently, there had been 1,600 detainees. Approximately 150 detainees had already been sentenced but they had not been transferred to a penitentiary. Some of the detainees complained privately to the Committee members that they had to pay in order to be transferred to another centre. Many of the detainees provided the Committee members with notes on their situation pleading for help. 126. At Polinter, the Committee members observed that approximately 90 men were kept in overcrowded cells of 30 square metres, which resembled cages in which it was impossible for them to move or exercise. There were no beds (inmates slept on concrete surfaces and hammocks placed one above the other) and the sanitation facilities were deplorable (a hole was used as a shower and toilet and no soap or toilet paper was provided). There was no natural light (the lights were on 24 hours a day), resulting in the detainees losing their sense of time. Fans were used for ventilation, but the temperature was still very high, even though the visit occurred in winter. Detainees were allowed to leave their cells for a common area in the basement once a day for 40 minutes.