A/HRC/4/40/Add.2 page 19 87. The Working Group met people in prison who said that they had received extremely long sentences of 8, 12 and up to 16 years of deprivation of liberty for being found in the possession of insignificant quantities of drugs. Some claimed that they were not dealers, but simply users. 88. The judiciary receives an extremely low level of funding. The Working Group was informed that the judiciary’s share of the 2004 budget was just 1.79 per cent. The funding for the penitentiary system too is extremely low. The withdrawal of the “two-for-one” policy for reducing sentences, the introduction of detención en firme and the imposition of more severe sentences for certain offences have only aggravated the situation in detention centres. 89. The Working Group welcomes the fact that since the visit the Government has provided information on the appropriation of additional budget funding to improve the situation in detention facilities. 90. While the Working Group’s mandate relates to the legality of detention, it must consider the extent to which conditions of detention adversely affect the right to a fair judgement, to due process and to a defence. At the detention centres visited by the Working Group, it saw no areas that would afford the necessary privacy for meetings between the detainees and those defending them. According to the detainees, interviews with their lawyers take place behind bars, and in the presence of other detainees. 91. Ill-treatment by officers of the Judicial Police, including torture, is apparently common during the initial phases of detention. The Committee against Torture noted in its conclusions and recommendations issued on 8 February 2006 (CAT/C/ECU/CO/3) that 70 per cent of detainees in Quito had reported being victims of torture or ill-treatment during their detention (para. 16). The purpose of such treatment is apparently not only to obtain forced confessions or information, but also to castigate and punish. The Working Group saw detainees who showed visible signs of torture and ill-treatment. The Judicial Police apparently acts without any oversight from an outside body and in complete impunity. Some inmates reported being struck and tortured with nightsticks or batons marked with the words “human rights” when they were being interrogated at the Judicial Police cells in Quito. 92. The only medical certificate considered valid as proof that torture, ill-treatment, assault or other abuse has taken place is that issued by the physician of the Judicial Police. Examinations or certificates issued by private doctors are not accepted. Consequently, it is extremely rare that violations and abuse are actually documented. The lack of a valid medical certificate makes it impossible to substantiate reports of such serious acts. Furthermore, at police cells, detainees’ access to private medical care or even to contact with their families is at best extremely restricted and usually flatly refused. 93. The level of violence at the detention centres is also particularly high. There are regular reports of serious acts of aggression against the guards and between the inmates. Various detainees at the Guayaquil pretrial detention centre expressed serious concern at the prospect of being transferred to the Coastal Prison. It is apparently controlled by gangs, and the lives and safety of guards and detainees are seriously threatened there.