Cells in police stations, security force stations • Custody facilities –the exact name varies from country to country ; • Sections reserved for persons remanded in custody, in prisons for convicted detainees Police and security forces The penal administration, which generally depends on the Ministry of Justice, more rarely on the Ministry of the Interior Holding in custody after charges and before trial (pre-trial detention) PLACE OF DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY Holding in custody before charges OF LIBERTY DETAINING AUTHORITY • Persons in pre-trial detention are waiting for a court to try them and give a verdict on their case; it is a period of psychologically painful uncertainty, all the more so if the persons concerned are not informed regularly of how their case is progressing; • The penal regime applied to them is in practice often more restrictive than that applied to those who have already been convicted (contacts with the outside world, activities, etc.); • Pre-trial detention facilities are often overcrowded. • The first place of detention after arrest; • Detention there must be of short duration, between 24 and 48 hours; • Those deprived of their liberty have limited access to the outside world; • These are generally places where interrogations are held; • The conditions of detention are often the most basic here; • An emotionally very difficult stage of detention for those experiencing it; • The risks of abuse against people deprived of their liberty—torture, ill-treatment and humiliating and degrading treatment—are very high during this phase of detention if the system of protection, as described above, is deficient. CHARACTERISTICS TABLE 1 : DIFFERENT TYPES OF DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY TYPE OF DEPRIVATION MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR NGOS 18