A/HRC/4/40/Add.4 page 19 75. Moreover, although it has in general conformed its practice with the provisions of the criminal procedure code, the National Police continues in many instances to ill-treat detainees, both as a measure to further the investigative function assigned to it by law, and to maintain discipline in the detention facilities.1 Although there have certainly been efforts by some human rights prosecutors, who have opened proceedings regarding such abuses, it does not appear that their perpetrators are being effectively brought to justice. The Working Group is very concerned by the apparent indifference of the majority of judges and prosecutors to the widespread ill-treatment of detainees by the police. D. The absence of a proper penitentiary system 76. As mentioned above, when detainees are transferred from police custody into the prison system, they continue to be under the control of the police. They thus are dependent on the police in order to establish contact with their defence lawyer and in order to have petitions or motions delivered to the judge in charge of their case. The Working Group was informed, both by detainees and by judges, of frequent instances in which the prison police fail to deliver judgements to a detainee, thereby preventing him or her from asking to be released or to exercise the right to appeal. Moreover, the prison system completely lacks a functioning complaints procedure. 77. While the detainees are at the mercy of the police in the above-mentioned respects, the prison authorities (i.e. the police) have in fact, to a large extent, renounced their task to manage the detention centre. Segregation between remand detainees and convicts, which is so emphatically prescribed in the Constitution and the laws, is non-existent in reality. Food provided by the prison administration is minimal and most detainees rely on purchasing food for themselves. Similarly lacking are hygienic and health services, adequate facilities and treatment for vulnerable groups such as detainees with serious bodily ailments and the mentally ill. In the prisons of both San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba there is in practice no control over the interaction between male and female detainees. The limits on the State budget allocated to the prisons and the pitiful remuneration of the police assigned to serve in prisons cannot justify the abdication from the public responsibility to provide the detainees with these services, which they currently can obtain only through constant unlawful payments and a bustling network of businesses run by the inmates, established or tolerated without any kind of control by the authorities. 78. This situation prevents the adequate design of a criminal justice policy in which the rehabilitation and reintegration into the community of the offender enjoys a primary importance. According to the director of the Penitenciaría Nacional, there is one social worker per thousand detainees in that prison. As the Supreme Court has found in several decisions, the situation in the prisons violates article 87 of the Constitution of Honduras, which mandates the prison system with ensuring the rehabilitation of the detainees and their preparation for reintegration. In its decision of 10 February 2006 on the habeas corpus petition brought by the Tegucigalpa human rights prosecutor on behalf of the detainees of the Penitencaría Nacional, the Supreme Court ordered the Ministry of Security to correct the situation in the Penitencaría Nacional within one year. However, without a substantial increase in resources and a profound change in the attitude of the authorities, the Supreme Court decision is destined to remain a dead letter.