may leave less scope for the risk factors associated with detention outside the legal procedural framework and contribute to the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. 32. The Subcommittee considers that, given their condition, Police Stations Nos. 5 and 9 of Lomas de Zamora should be closed or completely remodelled. 3.Torture and ill-treatment 33.The Subcommittee repeatedly received consistent reports of police brutality occurring during detention or at the time that arrests were made. These reports concerned various security forces, including the Federal Police Force of Argentina, the Gendarmería and the Buenos Aires Police Force. Many of the people who were interviewed (both young people and adults, including some pregnant women) said that beatings and police brutality were “usual” and were often used to control detainees or force them to confess or as a reprisal for having complained about their conditions of detention. Police officers kicked detainees and dealt blows to their heads, chests and other parts of the body using their hands, rubber truncheons, rocks or gun butts and would do so even when people were handcuffed. Some said that the police had subjected them to the “submarine” treatment, burned them with cigarettes and even cut off fingers. The Subcommittee also received reports of excessive use of firearms by police officers when making arrests, denial of access to toilets and denial of medical care. Members of the Subcommittee had the opportunity to speak with a number of detainees who had been struck, including a pregnant woman who was being held at the Special Police Unit for Women and the Family in La Plata. All this information notwithstanding, and even though many cases of torture and ill-treatment have been documented in the records kept by federal and provincial agencies (see paragraph 103), the number of such reports far outstrips the small number of investigations undertaken by the public prosecutions services. 34.The Argentine authorities should take effective steps to prevent torture and ill-treatment in police stations and units, to investigate cases in which such practices are used and to punish those responsible. In addition to filing criminal charges in such cases, the authorities should improve the police oversight system so that personal and institutional responsibility for instances of torture and illtreatment can be established and the appropriate disciplinary penalties can be imposed. B.Prisons 1.General issues 35.During its visits to prisons, the Subcommittee formed the impression that many of the shortcomings in the management and treatment of detainees reflect the markedly military character and corporatist nature of the prison system’s structure, which hampers the introduction of genuine “civil governance” into prisons. In this connection, it takes note of the information provided by the provincial authorities describing the efforts made in recent years further to demilitarize the Buenos Aires Prison Service. The Subcommittee also found a system in which custodial sentences are the norm, limiting the opportunities for many detainees to mix and socialize in a group. 36. The Subcommittee calls for the adoption of rapid and effective measures to achieve civilian governance of the prison service, as is proper to democratic systems, one of whose foundations must be strict respect for the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty. (a)Assignment of detainees to prisons 37.Many persons deprived of their liberty complained that they were imprisoned far from their families, perforce isolating them from a vital source of support and restraint. Frequent transfers to remote locations in the provinces and to different places in the country affect both inmates and their families, hinder the progress made by inmates in their prison activities and could constitute a form of illtreatment. The information and complaints received also indicate that transfers are used as a form of punishment or reprisal, as they take place without the families being informed and under degrading conditions because of the poor state of repair of the prison vehicles and the long periods inmates have to spend in them, sometimes without food. 38.The Subcommittee takes note of the information provided by the State according to which a number of measures have been taken to ensure that inmates are detained closer to their families; these include the “60 por 7” programme. Moreover, according to the State, the infrastructure building programme undertaken since 2008 has focused on providing places in greater Buenos Aires. 39. The State party should take measures to ensure that persons deprived of their liberty may be held in prisons close to their homes. To that end, feasibility studies will need to be carried out taking into account the necessary resource and space requirements. Measures should also be taken to guarantee the right of persons deprived of their liberty to object to transfers and to be heard in that connection by the competent authority, without the risk of reprisal. (b)Internal regime 40.In some of the prisons visited, the Subcommittee observed the persistence of ideas and practices whereby persons deprived of their liberty are considered as persons deserving graduated treatment which may exceed the sentence or judicial measure imposed. Examples of this are forcing inmates to have haircuts, assigning wings to a specific religion and authorizing inmates to impose corrective measures on other inmates and clinical-criminological studies that violate inmates’ privacy and freedom of conscience. 41.The Subcommittee takes note of the information provided by the State party, according to which following the visit the Buenos Aires Prison Service issued a decision in which it expressly recalled the prohibition on forcing inmates to have their hair cut, as well as on any other measures affecting their personal appearance, and stipulating that failure to respect the ban would constitute serious misconduct.