A/HRC/7/3/Add.4 page 16 III. CONDITIONS OF DETENTION 50. The conditions of detention in police cells visited by the Special Rapporteur were appalling. Detainees are held in unsanitary overcrowded cells, forced to sleep on the concrete floor, and are provided with insufficient food and clean water. At some police stations, women and men, children and adults are held together in extremely overcrowded conditions. Medical care is non-existent and seriously ill detainees are left to languish until they die. In the opinion of the Special Rapporteur, this demonstrates a complete disrespect for human life and dignity. 51. All the prisons visited by the Special Rapporteur are characterized by severe overcrowding, consisting of an inmate population that is typically double or triple the actual capacity of the facility. For example, while Port Harcourt Prison is designed for 800 detainees, a total of 2,420 are presently held. The vast majority of detainees (e.g. in Port Harcourt, 92 per cent) are held awaiting trial (in pretrial detention) or held without charge for lengthy periods, as long as 10 years. These detainees are subject to even more severe conditions than those of convicts: they are held in overcrowded cells, lacking appropriate hygiene facilities, with insufficient places to sleep, inadequate and/or insufficient food, water, and medical care, let alone any opportunities for educational, leisure, or vocational training. Pretrial detainees reported that they are forced to pay for food, bathing, or contacting family members, receiving visitors, or medication. It is ironic that discriminatory treatment suffered by pretrial detainees, who may be held longer than some convicts, has been justified by the heads of some facilities on the grounds that their guilt being not yet proven, there is less responsibility and obligation, and consequently less resources, allocated to care for them. Children on remand are often held with adult males. 52. The Special Rapporteur considers that such an extensive recourse to pretrial detention constitutes the major cause for the overcrowding of prisons. It is contrary to the principle of the presumption of innocence and to the rule regarding deprivation of liberty as a disposition of last resort laid down by international law (article 9, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). 53. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by the Government’s recognition of the severity of the problem by considering the release of approximately 25,000 of the 45,000 detainees currently held in Nigerian prisons as announced on 4 January 2006. He is further encouraged by the announcement on 16 May 2007, that the Government will release all prisoners over 70, and those over 60 who have been on death row for 10 years or more. 54. The Special Rapporteur notes that at the facilities he visited the conditions of detention of female detainees are much better than those of men. The female sections/wings of the prisons are not overcrowded and women are provided with considerably better facilities. He welcomes that at Port Harcourt prison, the female detainees are able to engage in (vocational) activities, such as sewing, etc. 55. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges that at most of the facilities he visited there were serious constraints on resources and that staff have not been paid for several months.