CAT/OP/BRA/1 3. Discipline and sanction 140. The SPT was concerned by the very strict and militaristic regime observed in facilities for children and adolescents. With regard to the use of security troops to maintain discipline, the SPT refers to section IV.C.4. In Viana II, children and adolescents were detained in a maximum prison facility, with very rigorous internal procedures. In that facility, the SPT was very concerned by the health and psychological situation of the children, some of whom were heavily medicated. 141. The SPT noted the existence of a complaints mechanism (“ouvidoría”) for children and adolescents. In practice however, those interviewed and who alleged ill-treatment or other forms of abuses, were unable to report those abuses to independent and impartial third parties. The SPT was very concerned at the fears of reprisals expressed by most children and adolescents. 142. The SPT recommends that the State party take practical steps to guarantee the right of children and adolescents to submit petitions or appeals regarding their treatment, including disciplinary measures, without fear of reprisals, to an independent authority with appropriate remedial powers. 4. Torture and ill-treatment (a) Pre-trial detention facilities 143. The SPT received consistent and numerous allegations of ill-treatment at Forum Bras and the adjacent building of Rio Nilo, both being pre-trial detention facilities adjacent to the Bras court in São Paulo. Children and adolescents reported a military atmosphere with strict discipline. The SPT observed that inmates kept their heads facing the floor and their hands behind their back, and were not allowed to talk. The SPT noticed bruises (black eyes) on the face of some of the inmates. (b) Institutions for children and adolescents 144. Although the authorities insisted on the pedagogic nature of the work in the centres and the absence of armed staff inside the centres for children and adolescents, the SPT was very concerned, especially in centres for recidivists, at the palpable tension existing between inmates and staff. 145. Through interviews conducted with a number of children and adolescents, the SPT received credible and reiterated allegations of torture and ill-treatment. These included beatings by staff on the back of the head and other parts of the body with open hands, wood or metal batons, stripping of children and adolescents, forcing them to stand in uncomfortable positions, insults and threats. As an overall observation, the SPT noted that humiliating practices were resorted to as a tool to maintain discipline. In the Internment Unit of Jatobá in São Paulo the SPT collected evidence of dismissal and cover-up of injuries by medical staff. In the facility for children and adolescents in Espírito Santo, which was run as a maximum security prison, there were five suicide attempts and one suicide in the past seven months. 146. An extremely worrying element was the involvement of external security troops (“tropa de choque”) to maintain discipline and quell riots. Ordinarily, these troops would remain outside the centres and intervene only when requested to do so by the administration in the case of riots. However, the SPT received a number of credible allegations that external troops would frequently, if not systematically, be requested to enter and apply excessive use of force and humiliating practices following a search of a centre or when a riot or even a disagreement arose between a child or adolescent and the staff. In one centre, these interventions had allegedly happened three times in one week. The children showed 23