4- A VERY SPECIAL CASE The mandate of the Special Rapporteur seeks the best interest of Prisoners. On this basis, the case of a once Second-in-Command to the Head of State of the Gambia who was serving a term of imprisonment will be brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities in the Gambia. FINDINGS 1. The Gambia lived up to expectation as a co-operative State Party to the Charter, allowing the Special Rapporteur access to all its prisons and as many police cells as he wanted to visit. 2. Trained officers, warders and wardens man the prisons. 3. Consistent with the trend in prison visited so far under his mandate, the Gambia recorded a very low number of female prisoners. These were commodius and neat cells and surroundings. 4. Generally inmates acknowledged the existence of good relationship between themselves and the guards. 5. Welcome reforms have started in the prison regime. 6. There was credible evidence of assault of suspects by the police. 7. Torture, with torture scars, and cruel and degrading treatment complained of by some inmates of the Security Wing at the State Central Prison (Mile 2) were credible enough to cause serious concern for members of the team. Congestion is a serious problem at the Remand Wing of Mile; and it may account for the spiriting may of some inmates at cells at the Police Headquarters Station, shortly before my visit here. 9. The constitutional limit of 72 hours detention without trial seems to be known by al officials who have anything to do with detention. But not all of them comply with this basic rule. Evidence of this rife at the Police Headquarters Station. The unlawful detention period ranged from 90 days to 7 days at the just mentioned station. 10.Complaints about the neglect of medical needs of inmates were many enough to warrant their inclusion among the Findings, even as note was taken of official briefings of frequent visits to prisons by doctors, including specialists. 11. That prisoners will like visitors to know how unjust and insensitive it is for them to be in prison is an all too familiar experience to the Special Rapporteur has come to expect. But that the incarceration of Sikunda Jarra West and 10 others at Jajanbureh Prison evokes the sympathy of third parties is undoubted. 4000 out of a population of 5000 in their area had paid their taxes to the "chief', and their refusal to pay similar (double) taxes to a claimant to the chieftainship to their ended them in prison shows how not to use prison. 30