CAT/OP/BRA/2/Add.1 166. It is estimated that free legal aid is now permanently provided at 1,387 prisons out of a total of 1,598.28 167. Lastly, a register has been drawn up of all the public defenders in the country specializing in the penal system. The defenders listed on the register form part of the National Public Defender Force for the Penal System and as a gesture of solidarity provide, on a voluntary and exceptional basis, comprehensive legal aid free of charge to prisoners who are serving a sentence or awaiting trial. There are now 366 public defenders on the list. The Public Defender Force has already been active in Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Santa Catarina, on behalf of 5,066 individuals. 4. Expert services 168. Brazil recognizes that the political, administrative and financial autonomy of expert and criminalistic services, and joint action by the federal entities, the Federal Government and external oversight bodies are important in preventing and combating crimes of torture and ill-treatment in Brazil. 169. On 17 September 2009, therefore, Act No. 12030, establishing general rules governing the work of official forensic experts, entered into force. This law ensures technical, scientific and functional autonomy for duly qualified individuals carrying out the function of official expert. It should be noted that the functional autonomy of experts and the modernization of official expert services to strengthen their structure and ensure independent, competent production of material evidence, are goals of the third National Human Rights Plan. 170. Currently, 10 federal entities have expert services that are directly attached to the Civil Police, while in 16 states, expert services are administratively subordinate to the departments of public safety, social welfare, etc. In states such as Santa Catarina and Río Grande do Sul, general expert institutes have now been established, where expert is a profession in itself and not limited to Civil Police. In the state of Paraná, there is a specific career structure for experts with the Scientific Police. 171. Attention is drawn to the initiative of the Human Rights Secretariat of the Office of the President to establish a working group on torture and forensic expertise in 2003. This group drafted the Brazilian Protocol on Forensic Expertise in the Crime of Torture, containing guidelines and rules to be followed by expert services, experts and forensic experts. 172. The Brazilian Protocol29 is consistent with the Istanbul Protocol, but tailored to Brazil’s situation as regards procedures for identifying and producing forensic evidence in cases of torture. It is also guided by the principles and recommendations found in the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and by the Subcommittee’s guidelines. 173. The way in which medical examinations are conducted in cases of alleged torture vary from state to state, given that official expertise is regulated primarily by state legislation. Some states are already strictly applying the Protocol to their operations. Such is the case in the state of Ceará and the Antonio Persivo Cunha Institute of Legal Medicine in the state of Pernambuco. 28 29 36 See National Council of the Department of Prosecution, A visão do Ministério Público brasileiro sobre o sistema penitenciario brasileiro (The Department of Prosecution view of the Brazilian prison system), 2013, available in Portuguese at: http://s.conjur.com.br/dl/sistema-prisional.pdf. PNDH-3 page 106. Available at: http://www.dhnet.org.br/denunciar/tortura/a_pdf/protocolo_br_tortura.pdf. GE.14-42059