E/CN.4/2004/56/Add.3
page 8
30.
Recommendation (b) stated: The abuse by the police of the power of arrest without
judicial order in flagrante delicto cases to arrest any suspect should be brought to an
immediate end.
31.
According to the information received, there has been no significant advance in relation
to this recommendation. It is further reported that in Rio de Janeiro, a judicial order known as a
generic “search and apprehension warrant” allows the police to enter and inspect any and all
establishments or residences in an identified community. Using this warrant police have
reportedly entered private homes and searched communal residences. The warrants have also
been blamed in connection with shootings in slums and other underprivileged communities in
Rio de Janeiro. On the other hand, in the interior of the State of Pernambuco, in the sertão,
where marijuana is often grown, it is allegedly common to professionally reward military police
officers for the number of arrests made. In situ investigations have reportedly demonstrated that
many arrests for possession of drugs are carried out using forged evidence and/or confessions
obtained through torture. Cases of torture inflicted upon those who were arrested in these
circumstances have reportedly involved the intelligence service of the military police in
Pernambuco. Concern has been expressed that these types of arrest often target individuals from
the lowest strata of society and those of African descent.
32.
Recommendation (c) stated: Those legitimately arrested in flagrante delicto should
not be held in police stations beyond the 24-hour period required for obtaining a judicial
warrant of temporary detention. Overcrowding in remand prisons can be no justification
for leaving detainees in the hands of the police (where, in any event, the conditions of
overcrowding appear substantially to exceed those even in some of the most overcrowded
prisons).
33.
According to the information received, in the last two years, 23 centres for temporary
detention (CDP) were built in the State of São Paulo to receive detainees awaiting verdicts,
thereby relieving overcrowding at police stations. However, these CDPs are reportedly already
overcrowded and the detainees continue to be transferred to sections designated for inmates who
have already been convicted. The conditions of the CDPs are said to be precarious. In
São Paulo, a new model for prison monitoring is being implemented: the Associations for
Protection and Assistance to Prisoners (APAC). They are mainly funded by NGOs and
administered by the Secretary for the Administration of Prisons. In Rio de Janeiro, “clean police
stations” have reportedly been created and, with a view to putting an end to lock-ups at police
stations, “custodial houses” designated to receive prisoners previously held in police stations that
are being deactivated have been built. However, the Special Rapporteur has been informed that,
in practice, too few of these custodial houses have been built and detainees from deactivated
police stations are reportedly just sent to other police stations that continue to take in prisoners.
It is also reported that many prisoners continue to be held at police stations even after they have
been sentenced, thereby remaining in the custody of the Secretary for Public Safety instead of
the Secretary for the Administration of Prisons, under whose jurisdiction they would be entitled
to different rights.
34.
The Special Rapporteur has also been informed that a draft law is before the national
congress that would institute a differentiated disciplinary regime (RDD). This proposal allegedly
provides for a regime of severe punishments for inmates who undermine the order or discipline
of the penitentiary that could last up to 360 days in isolation. Although this proposal has yet to