A/HRC/16/52/Add.3 39. Despite differences in the conditions of the police lock-ups visited, none complied with international standards with regard to the treatment of detainees. The worst conditions were found at May Pen, Denham Town, Kingston Central and Montego Bay police stations, while those in the stations at Alligator Pond and Duhaney Park for women were clearly better. 40. The sheer duration of policy custody makes the problem of inhuman conditions more severe. Appalling conditions might be bearable for a maximum of 48 hours, but the fact that detainees remain there for several months or even years amounts to inhuman treatment. It is also inhuman for police officers to have to work under such conditions, such as those seen in May Pen and Montego Bay police stations. Police lock-ups in Jamaica are used as de facto remand centres, where persons awaiting trial can be held for several months or years, despite current practices worldwide of holding detainees at police lock-ups for up to 48 or maximum 72 hours. The Special Rapporteur interviewed one detainee who had been held for five years and four other detainees who had been held for more than four. 41. The solution to the problem at police lock-ups is not simply to renovate or alter existing facilities, as is currently being done at Hunt’s Bay police station. Rather, the concept of police custody should be modified to short-term detention not exceeding a maximum of 48 hours. A person who is charged within 48 hours should then be either released on bail or transferred to a remand facility, under a different authority from the police. The Special Rapporteur was concerned that the current model of extremely long periods of police custody in unbearable conditions was intended to cause such personal distress as to force detainees to confess. If this is the explicit purpose of such prolonged police detention, it may even be qualified as torture. 2. Remand centres 42. The conditions found at the Horizon Remand Centre were better than in the police stations, but were still extremely harsh, despite the fact that remand detainees are supposed to be presumed innocent until found guilty. In addition, although Horizon was only at 58 per cent of its capacity, with 609 detainees, there were several human rights concerns, including a lack of water, sometimes for a number of days. Additionally, as in police stations, the Special Rapporteur received many allegations of arbitrary treatment of detainees by warders. Many of the detainees noted that the warders were able to take in mobile phones and marihuana, which they then sold to detainees. 43. On 8 February 2010, disturbances broke out at Horizon as a result of frustration with the conditions of detention and treatment by the warders. The Special Rapporteur visited the detention facility several days after the disturbances and was able to speak to both the detainees and the authorities regarding the events. However, the testimonies of the detainees differed greatly from the description provided by the authorities. According to the authorities, the disturbances had started when 24 detainees who were outside their cells managed to cut open all the locks and release the other detainees. In order to prevent a breakout, the warders called for police back-up, and the violence that ensued was only in self-defence. The detainees claimed that they had not had water for four days, so they started shaking the grills and throwing stones and other debris. They were warned by the warders to stop, and when they did not, the warders left the building and returned with police and military officers as back-up. The authorities then proceeded to suppress the detainees through excessive use of force by forcefully taking them out of their cells and beating them with iron bars and pipes. 44. As a result of the disturbances, more than 70 people were injured, including almost 60 detainees. All of the injured were taken to a doctor; 35 detainees were taken to the hospital, and 15 were admitted. No officers were hospitalized as they only suffered minor injuries. The medical evidence obtained indicated that the overall pattern of injuries was 11