A/HRC/40/59/Add.2 51. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to stress the importance of transferring the responsibility for health care from the prison administration to the Ministry of Health and Social Development or the relevant provincial ministry of health, as the current supervisory chain in detention centres may prevent health professionals from documenting and reporting torture or ill-treatment in complete independence. E. Solitary confinement 52. During his visit to the provincial prisons in Cruz del Eje and Bouwer, the Special Rapporteur received detailed and consistent statements from detainees placed in separate single-occupancy cells alleging that solitary confinement was in fact used as a punishment. Furthermore, solitary confinement was reportedly used for detainees awaiting transfer, and as a protective measure for certain detainees, such as former police officers and transgender detainees, among others. 53. Detainees who were isolated for disciplinary reasons reported having been in solitary confinement for periods of up to two months and that, in order to simulate compliance with the internationally recognized maximum duration of 15 days, they were placed in isolation for several consecutive periods of 15 days, interrupted only by short breaks of approximately one hour outside the isolation cell. 54. The Special Rapporteur shares the concern expressed by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention about the use of punitive solitary confinement without prior judicial proceedings and legal remedy, 4 and stresses that the alleged practice of circumventing international standards that restrict the duration of solitary confinement may well amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and, in certain circumstances, may even constitute torture. F. Death in custody 55. The Special Rapporteur was informed by the Chief Public Defender’s Office that in the course of 2017, 42 deaths had occurred in federal prisons, 23 of which were reportedly caused by diseases or deficiencies in health care, and 16 – as opposed to 6 in 2016 – by suicide through hanging. In view of this dramatic increase in suicides, the Special Rapporteur expresses particular concern at the absence of a mechanism for early detection and effective response to mental health problems among the prison population and the reported dismantling of the Suicide Prevention Programme, which might have influenced the high number of suicides that occurred during the past year. The data shared with the Special Rapporteur refer to deaths in federal prisons only. The frequency of deaths in custody is alleged to be even higher in provincial prisons, but could not be evaluated reliably by the Special Rapporteur due to the lack of official data on the subject. G. Work, education and recreation 56. A general issue of concern in almost all of the facilities visited is the excessive amount of time that detainees are confined to their cells without any opportunity to work or engage in educational or recreational activities. 57. The Special Rapporteur received numerous complaints about poor access to educational and vocational training or work in most prison facilities visited, and a complete lack of such opportunities in police stations. Even in prisons, only a small number of inmates reported pursuing educational activities, allegedly due to a shortage of classrooms, teaching material and personnel. Some detainees who had the opportunity to work in federal prisons complained about a reduction in the number of authorized working hours, which resulted in 4 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: preliminary findings from its visit to Argentina”, 18 May 2017. 11