E/CN.4/1994/31 page 30 (a) Information regarding the practice of torture in general 147. According to the information received, although torture is prohibited by law in China, police and other State personnel continue to use it to extract confessions or to intimidate or punish prisoners. Torture often occurs during initial interrogation, immediately after arrest, when police officers try to force suspects to give information about themselves or others, or to admit alleged offences. Torture may also continue throughout the period of detention without trial, which can last for weeks or months before a detainee is either prosecuted and tried, or released without charge or given a term of administrative detention. 148. According to the information received, torture and ill-treatment are also common in prisons and labour camps where prisoners are transferred after being tried and sentenced by a court or after being sentenced to a term of administrative detention without the benefit of a trial. In penal institutions, ill-treatment often occurs when prisoners infringe regulations or disobey orders. Both common criminal prisoners and persons detained for political reasons have, reportedly, been subjected to torture. However, the majority of victims seem to come from the less educated or less privileged classes. 149. The most common methods of torture reportedly include beatings, assaults with electric batons or stun guns, the use of handcuffs and shackles in a way intended to inflict pain, suspension by the arms in contorted positions, being made to adopt painful or exhausting physical postures, deprivation of sleep or food, exposure to cold or heat, and prolonged solitary confinement beyond the 15 day period allowed by the Chinese regulations as a punishment. It is allegedly common practice for prisoners sentenced to death to wear handcuffs and/or leg irons from the time they are sentenced to death until they are executed, even if it is a period of several months. 150. Reports were also received of prisoners becoming ill in jail, frequently as a consequence of the lack of proper sanitation and hygiene, and poor nutrition, who were denied proper medical treatment. 151. According to the information received, Chinese law does not provide basic safeguards to protect prisoners against torture. The law only guarantees access to a lawyer in cases where detainees are prosecuted under the criminal law. Even in such cases, there is no provision in law for access to a lawyer or a judicial authority during pre-trial detention and access to a lawyer is only guaranteed once the procedure for trial has started. In these circumstances it is almost impossible for detainees to make complaints about torture. The legislation includes regulations which permit administrative detention without charge or trial and, therefore, without any access to a lawyer or a judicial authority, for a period of up to four years. Access for the family is usually only granted after a prisoner has been tried and sentenced or "assigned" a term of administrative detention. Furthermore, family visits are considered a privilege rather than a right and can therefore be denied to prisoners.