is held that "[i]f the appellate procedure enables the prisoner to prolong the appellate hearings over a period of years, the fault is to be attributed to the appellate system that permits such delays and not the prisoner who takes advantage of it". of an official report into the incident involving beatings of the author by a warder in 1991, the State party cannot dismiss the author's claim that he was subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. He argues that the State party's reliance on the use of "reasonable force" to restrain the applicant who had attacked a warder is misleading, as both article 3 of the U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Correctional Rules of Jamaica prescribe behaviour which promotes the rehabilitation and humane treatment of detainees, which implies that force may be used only when "strictly necessary". 8.3 Counsel reiterates that his client was detained for eight days "presumably incommunicado" without being told that he was being charged for murder. He refers to the Committee's General Comment on article 9, where it is noted that delays under article 9 (3) must not exceed a few days, and that pre-trial detention should be an exception. He further observes that a requirement to give reasons on arrest has been imposed under common law and is now laid down in Section 28 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984. While he accepts that Mr. Stephens voluntarily went with his mother to Montego Bay Police Station to "report the incident of the death of George Lawrence", he does not accept that it was reasonable in the circumstances to detain the author for eight days without charge. 8.8 Counsel refers to a report prepared in 1983 by the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Jamaica, in which he observed that Jamaican prison rules were systematically broken and that there were "merciless and unjustifiable beatings" of inmates by prison warders. Furthermore, the Jamaica Council for Human Rights is said to have been inundated with cases of abuse of prisoners since it was created in 1968. In addition, counsel points out that several prisoners have died following clashes between warders and inmates; the circumstances of the deaths of inmates often remain unclear and suspicious. Other prisoners are said to be targeted for abuse simply because they were witnesses to beatings and killings by prison warders. Four such incidents occurred on 28 May 1990 (death of three inmates as a result of injuries inflicted by prison staff), on 30 June 1991 (four inmates killed by other inmates, who reportedly had been paid by prison warders), on 4 May 1993 and on 31 October 1993 (four inmates shot dead in their cells). 8.4 In this context, he contends that article 9 (2) imposes (a) the obligation to give reasons at the time of the arrest and (b) the obligation to inform the person arrested "promptly" of any charges against him. On 22 February 1983, the only information the author was given was that he was under detention "until the police obtained more information". This, it is submitted, does not satisfy the requirements of article 9 (2). 8.5 As to the alleged violation of article 9 (3), counsel refers to the Committee's jurisprudence which emphasizes that delays between arrest and presentation to a judicial officer should not exceed a few days.6 He also points out that in an individual opinion appended to one of these Views by Committee member B. Wennergren, it was submitted that the word "promptly" does not permit of a delay of more than two or three days.7 8.9 It is submitted that in the light of this history of violence in the death row section of St. Catherine District Prison, the State party has in no way shown that the author was not a victim of violations of articles 7 and 10 (1) in the course of 1991. By reference to rule 173 of the Correctional Rules of Jamaica and Rule 36 of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which deal with internal complaints procedures, counsel submits that prisoners in Jamaica do not receive adequate redress from the prisons' internal complaints procedures. Some of them may be subjected to retaliatory measures if they testify against warders who have committee abuses. He reiterates that he has never been able to obtain a copy of the investigation into the beatings of Mr. Stephens, and continues to question that the warder who injured his client used "no more force that [was] necessary" (Rule 90 of the Correctional Rules of Jamaica). 8.6 Finally, counsel argues that article 9 (4) entitles any person subject to arrest or detention to challenge the lawfulness of his/her detention before a court without delay. He refutes the State party's argument that there was no denial of Mr. Stephens' right to do so by the judicial authorities, but rather a failure on the part of the author himself to exercise the right to apply for writ of habeas corpus. 8.7 In a further submission dated 21 April 1995, counsel contends that without providing the evidence 6 See Views on communication No. 253/1987, Paul Kelly v. Jamaica, adopted on 8 April 1991, paragraph 5.8; communication No. 277/1988, Terán Jijón v. Ecuador, Views adopted on 26 March 1992, paragraph 5.3. Examination of the merits 9.1 The Human Rights Committee has examined the present communication in the light of all the information made available to it by the parties, as it 7 Individual opinion of Committee member Bertil Wennergren to Views in Kelly v. Jamaica. 40