E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2 page 30 there was a small and dirty courtyard open to the sky. The food, provided once a day by the penitentiary system, appeared to the Special Rapporteur to be poor and even rotten. Detainees said that their relatives were normally allowed to give them food, without being allowed to see them. 83. Most of the persons held in pre-trial detention did not know the status of the legal proceedings against them. Most had not seen any magistrate since their arrest. Some had been held in pre-trial detention for up to 15 months. According to the information received from detainees held in different cells, every person who is brought to the jail is first detained in the punishment cell, called the “forte”, which is located at the entrance to the jail and which measured approximately 3 square metres. When the Special Rapporteur visited the forte, he saw in a corner a hole used as a toilet that was full of excrement. It was alleged that up to 20 persons are detained in this cell for up to 10 days, and that some were held in the overcrowded cell for up to 30 days. It was reported that detainees were using the water from the toilet as drinking water. 84. Amongst the persons interviewed by the Special Rapporteur (see annex), three detainees said that they had recently been arrested by military police officers and beaten with a palmatoria. At that time, marks consistent with their allegation, such as a round haematoma on the upper left leg of José Ricardo Vianna Gomez, haematomas on Marcio Furtado Correia Paiva’s upper left arm and an inflamed and swollen scar 1-2 centimetres long on his head, and marks on Valdi Aleixo Barata’s right back, shoulder and arm, were still visible. On the same day, the Special Rapporteur found a palmatoria with a hole in the middle in the Tierra Firma military police box, on which was inscribed “Tiazinha, chega-te a mim” (Snuggle up to me) and “Agora me dan medo” (Now I am afraid), consistent with the one described by the above-mentioned persons. 85. On 10 September, the Special Rapporteur visited the pre-trial detention centre (superintendency) of Marabá located in the same building as the Police Headquarters. Seventy-four persons were currently detained in 14 cells grouped around a large courtyard open to the sky. Only a few mattresses were in each cell, most of the detainees having to sleep on blankets or on the bare concrete floor. Detainees complained about the quality of the food which, as in other places visited by the Special Rapporteur, was composed of rice and pasta and which appeared to the Special Rapporteur to be poor and often rotten. They were reported to receive this meal once a day for lunch, and to receive coffee and bread for breakfast and diner. 86. Prisoners were said to be let out of their cells two hours a day, but, according to detainees, they were only let out every other day for two hours. A large number of them complained about torture and other forms of ill-treatment at the time of arrest by both military and civil police officers and during interrogation (see annex), but all recognized that, since the appointment of the new Director, the treatment had greatly improved. Beatings by prison guards had stopped. Furthermore, the Director affirmed that a person detained under his responsibility could only be taken away by a police investigator with a judicial order. 87. The Special Rapporteur then visited the lock-up of the Police Headquarters. Four persons were held in the courtyard, while a minor was held in each of the two cells. While the courtyard was clean and well ventilated, the air in the two cells was foul and humid. The two cells were pitch black and had no mattresses. The two minors had had a fight the previous night.