E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2 page 21 a large number had come (see annex). A number of the complaints also concerned the trustees who were said to be provided by the guards with iron bars and wooden sticks or clubs and maintained order by beating other inmates. The detainees indicated that the sticks were kept by the trustees in their cells which were located at the entrance to the lock-up, in front of the guards’ office. These two cells were very clean and well furnished with mattresses and cookers, as well as other personal items. Hidden under one of the beds, the Special Rapporteur discovered a rubber club and two wooden nightsticks with handles, as well as some iron bars. Interrogated, the chief of the lock-up indicated that the trustees used the iron bars to check the solidity of the cell bars. No explanation was given regarding the presence of the three clubs. The delegada assured the Special Rapporteur that she would take the necessary measures and would investigate the behaviour of the head of the lock-up. 2. A pre-trial detention facility 57. On 30 August, the Special Rapporteur visited the casa de custodia Muniz Sodré, one of the provisional detention centres of the Bangu penitentiary complex. At that time, 1,577 detainees were held in the 24 cells built to hold 62 persons each, i.e. a total of 1,488 detainees. The facility is divided into two large blocks containing 12 cells each. According to the Director, while Muniz Sodré is a pre-trial detention centre, around 40 per cent of the inmates were actually serving sentences, which in most of the cases were being appealed, and should therefore have been transferred to other facilities. In view of the overcrowding throughout the state, the Director indicated that it was not possible to know when such transfers would take place. He nevertheless assured the Special Rapporteur that convicted prisoners were separated from pre-trial detainees. 58. The Director indicated that detainees were let out of their cells four hours a day in shifts; this was later refuted by detainees interviewed by the Special Rapporteur. Detainees claimed that they were only let out of their cells once a week for two hours when visitors came. Cells were clean and well lighted and ventilated. Toilets and showers were separated from the main part of the cell. In one of the cells visited, 68 prisoners were held which meant that six prisoners had to sleep on the floor. All prisoners nevertheless had their own mattress and blankets. 59. The Special Rapporteur visited the punishment cells where, according to the registry, eight detainees were currently held. Eight detainees, half-naked, were in fact detained in very basic conditions. Most said that they had been punished for having fought with other detainees and some complained of having been beaten by prison guards when they were transferred to the punishment cells. All agreed that a dozen detainees, who were believed to be in bad condition from the beatings to which they had allegedly been subjected after an attempted escape, had recently been removed from the punishment cells. 60. The Special Rapporteur then visited the cells from which the detainees being punished were said to have come. Their co-inmates said that on 28 August their cell had been searched after an attempted escape during the night of 26/27 August. They did not know why they had been targeted, as the escape attempt was from another cell. After the search, some detainees complained that personal items had disappeared. It is believed that because of these complaints, they were allegedly taken, through the so-called Polish corridor, to the courtyard where they