E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2 page 54 165. The training and professionalism of police and other personnel responsible for custody are often inadequate, sometimes to the point of non-existence. A culture of brutality and, often, corruption is widespread. The few rich suspects, if deprived of liberty at all or even convicted, can purchase tolerable or at least less intolerable treatment and conditions of detention than the many who are poor and usually black or mulatto or, in rural areas, indigenous. 166. Relatively few allegations arose in respect of the federal level or the Federal District. Torture and similar ill-treatment are meted out on a widespread and systematic76 basis in most of the parts of the country visited by the Special Rapporteur and, as far as indirect testimonies presented to the Special Rapporteur from reliable sources suggest, in most other parts of the country. It is found at all phases of detention: arrest, preliminary detention, other provisional detention, and in penitentiaries and institutions for juvenile offenders. It does not happen to all or everywhere; mainly it happens to poor, black common criminals involved in petty crimes or small-scale drug distribution. And it happens in the police stations and custodial institutions through which these types of offender pass. The purposes range from obtaining of information and confessions to the lubrication of systems of financial extortion. The consistency of the accounts received, the fact that most detainees still bore visible marks consistent with their testimonies and that the Special Rapporteur was able to discover in almost all police stations instruments of torture as described by alleged victims such as iron and wooden bars make it difficult to refute the numerous torture allegations brought to his attention. On two occasions (see above paras. 35 (São Paulo) and 84 (Pará)), thanks to the information given by detainees themselves, the Special Rapporteur was able to discover large wooden sticks on which had been engraved by law enforcement officials laconic comments leaving no doubt as to their use. 167. In addition, conditions of detention in many places are, as candidly advertised by the authorities themselves, subhuman. The worst conditions the Special Rapporteur encountered tended to be in police cells, where people were kept for more than the 24-hour legally prescribed period. The Special Rapporteur feels constrained to note the intolerable assault on the senses he encountered in many of the places of detention, especially police lock-ups he visited. The problem was not mitigated by the fact that the authorities were often aware and warned him of the conditions he would discover. He could only sympathize with the common statement he heard from those herded inside, to the effect that “they treat us like animals and they expect us to behave like human beings when we get out”. 168. Brazil is an open society with a vigorous press. These conclusions will come as no surprise to many in the country who are concerned to know the reality. The recommendations that follow are mainly a compilation of best practice to be found in the country itself, albeit in too sporadic and isolated measure. Indeed, several would merely require the authorities to obey existing Brazilian law. 169. In the light of the foregoing, the Special Rapporteur has formulated the following recommendations: (a) First and foremost, the top federal and state political leaders need to declare unambiguously that they will not tolerate torture or other ill-treatment by public officials, especially military and civil police, prison personnel and personnel of juvenile institutions. They