CAT/C/BOL/CO/2 (f) Ensure that different categories of prisoners are housed in separate institutions or parts of institutions, taking account of their sex, age, criminal record, the legal reason for their detention and the necessities of their treatment. Deaths in custody 19. According to the State party, 85 prison inmates died in police stations between January 2006 and May 2010. The Committee is disturbed by the large number of deaths occurring in custody and by the fact that it has not received information on the causes of death or on the outcome of the corresponding investigations. The Committee also finds it regrettable that it does not have data on mortality rates in places of detention, including prisons, for the period from 2010 to 2012 (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The Committee urges the State party to promptly undertake thorough, impartial investigations into all deaths of persons held in custody and to carry out the corresponding autopsies. The State party should also assess any possibility that prison officers or other staff might bear responsibility for such deaths and, if this proves to be the case, to punish those responsible appropriately and to provide compensation to the victims’ families. The State party should supply detailed information on the causes of death recorded for persons who have died in custody, disaggregated by place of detention, sex, age, ethnic origin and cause of death. Monitoring and inspection of detention centres 20. While recognizing that, by law, the Ombudsman’s Office has unhindered access to the country’s prisons and other places of internment, the Committee does not have information on the adequacy of the measures adopted by the State party in response to the recommendations made by the Office in connection with its visits. Nor does the Committee have information on what the State party has done to ensure effective, independent oversight of detention centres by other agencies (arts. 11 and 12). The State party should: (a) Take the necessary steps to support the work of the Ombudsman’s Office in detention centres and to ensure that its recommendations are given full effect; (b) Build NGO oversight capacity and take the necessary steps to enable NGOs to visit places of detention regularly. The Optional Protocol and a national preventive mechanism 21. The Committee regrets that the State party has not yet established a national mechanism for the prevention of torture as provided for by the Optional Protocol to the Convention. It takes note of the fact that the delegation has informed it that the Ministry of Justice has prepared a new draft bill that would designate the Ombudsman’s Office as the national preventive mechanism. The Committee also notes, however, that the text of that draft bill does not define the terms of reference or the areas of authority of the mechanism, provides that the corresponding regulations are to be established by the Ombudsman’s Office and, with respect to the mechanism’s financial autonomy, simply says that “the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Public Finance shall allocate the necessary resources … within the available resources” (art. 2). The Committee urges the State party to complete the process of establishing or designating the national preventive mechanism in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention and in keeping with the Guidelines on National Preventive GE.13-44526 9