CAT/OP/MLI/1 H. Registers 75. The Subcommittee found that the records kept on detainees or persons held in police custody vary from one place of deprivation of liberty visited to another. Apart from those kept in Bollé Specialized Detention Centre for Women, the registers need to be standardized and significantly improved. Moreover, the information contained in the various registers (custody, prison and transfer registers) does not match. 76. Sometimes several registers had to be consulted to determine the situation of a single detainee. Since the information is not digitalized, it cannot be easily or quickly accessed or used. The Subcommittee also noted that not all registers are completed and signed regularly and that many useful records, such as records of deaths, transfers to hospital or other prisons, disciplinary punishments, visits by court officials, etc. are not always available. 77. As far as police station registers are concerned, in violation of article 77 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, arrival and departure times of persons taken into custody are not always recorded, thus making it difficult to monitor whether the legal limit on periods of pretrial detention is respected. 78. In the case of prison registers, the absence of copies of warrants of committal makes it impossible to monitor any extensions of pretrial detention. The registers only record the date on which detention started, not the date the prisoner was sentenced. The officer in charge of the registers only has the committal order issued by the judge, which contains no information about future court appearances or the sentence. Most persons in pretrial detention do not know when they will be brought before a judge. 79. The Subcommittee recommends the standardization and, if possible, centralization and digitalization of the register system in order to facilitate effective monitoring of the legality of pretrial detention. The Subcommittee also recommends the establishment of a register to record extensions of police custody, as well as registers of medical examinations, transfers, visits by court officials, family visits, foreigners and cases of death. The Subcommittee recommends that the authorities ensure the enforcement of article 77 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. I. Torture and ill-treatment Prisons 80. The Subcommittee encountered numerous cases of ill-treatment and some instances of torture in all the prisons it visited, over and above those caused by the appalling material conditions of detention and extreme overcrowding. They are generally the result of disciplinary measures carried out either by prison staff or by inmates (cell or yard bosses) with the warders’ approval and usually take the form of severe beatings with whips, belts, metal cables, rubber straps, canes, poles, etc. Other forms of torture and ill-treatment are used, such as being put in the stocks or forced to remain in painful positions for protracted periods. Such punishment is generally inflicted in front of the other inmates as a deterrent against such offences as stealing other inmates’ meals, violence, fighting and attempts at escape. 81. In many prisons, torture or ill-treatment can be avoided if the inmates pay the warders a certain sum, which varies according not only to the punishment in question but also to the inmate’s financial situation. In some of the establishments visited, the Subcommittee heard accounts of inmates being threatened with beatings if they did not pay a certain amount. In others, the Subcommittee heard allegations of “preventive” beatings being carried out to maintain prison discipline. 16 GE.14-41827