CAT/OP/MLI/1 38. The State party should ensure that detainees are able to access health care in conformity with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and should therefore immediately increase the budget allocated to detainees’ health. The purchase of medications and detainees’ hospital fees should be covered by the prison authorities. The State party should take the necessary measures to ensure that every prison has regular access to the services of a dentist and a qualified doctor, who should examine each detainee as soon as possible after his or her admission and monitor the physical and mental health of detainees, particularly by establishing medical files for each person committed to prison.7 The State party should ensure that persons with disabilities are held in decent conditions appropriate to their disabilities. C. Gendarmerie and police stations 39. With regard to the material conditions of detention, the Subcommittee observed that most cells do not meet the relevant international standards: toilets and showers are unsanitary or non-existent; and some lack light and ventilation, while others offer no shelter from the elements, particularly the wind and the cold; in general they often have neither mattresses nor mats and persons held in police custody sleep on the floor, often without even blankets at night. 40. Numerous police and gendarmerie stations lack the wherewithal, in particular the means of transport, to conduct investigations. None have a budget for feeding persons held in custody. As a result, persons held in custody frequently have their food, and sometimes water, paid for by officers in charge, or they go without for days – particularly if they have no family close to the place of their detention. The Subcommittee does, however, note that the Bamako Vice Squad, responsible for the protection of minors, functions satisfactorily. 41. The Subcommittee noted that the gendarmerie and police posts did not always have women’s cells, much less cells for the custody of minors. 42. The Subcommittee recalls that the State party has a duty to ensure that the material conditions of police custody are adequate for all detainees, and to provide them with food and water, in accordance with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.8 Furthermore, the Subcommittee recommends that the State party develop a cell modernization programme in conformity with international standards. D. Prisons 43. The Subcommittee visited 13 prisons in the district of Bamako and the regions of Koulikoro, Kayes, Ségou and Sikasso. The Subcommittee realizes that they account for only a portion of the 59 penitentiary establishments in the country, but they present a broad range in terms of size (one prison holds 1,600 inmates while others hold only a few dozen), structure (ranging from early twentieth-century establishments to facilities opened in 2009) and the composition of the prison population (prisons for all inmate categories, women’s 7 8 10 Approved by the Economic and Social Council in its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977. See Rules 22 to 25. Adopted by the first United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held in Geneva in 1955 and approved by the Economic and Social Council in its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977. GE.14-41827