CONCEPTS: UNDERSTANDING CULTURE IN PLACES OF DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY Cultural attributes in a centre for treatment of drug addiction, Brazil. In its visit to Brazil in 2011, the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) found that the aim of the Roberto Medeiros Centre for Treatment of Drug Addiction, Rio de Janeiro, was more punitive than therapeutic. The SPT noted material cultural attributes, such as the fact that the infrastructure and treatment received by patients was that of a prison rather than a hospital. It also observed less manifest factors, including that ‘patients had to keep their hands behind their backs when walking through the facility and when talking to staff’. Report on the visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to Brazil, 2012 (CAT/OP/BRA/1). b. Less tangible cultural attributes: • Underlying assumptions which make up the unspoken rules of the organisation about ‘why things are done the way they are done’. These may not be expressed on the conscious level and can thus be difficult for outsiders to detect. 6 | Penal Reform International | Institutional culture in detention: a framework for preventive monitoring