CAT/C/LTU/CO/2 page 6 The Committee recommends that the State party: a) Continue its efforts to alleviate the overcrowding of penitentiary institutions, including Pre-Trial Wards and the Hospital of Imprisonment Institutions, including through the application of alternative measures to imprisonment and the increase of budgetary allocations to develop and renovate the infrastructure of prisons and other detention facilities; b) Take effective measures to further improve living conditions in the detention facilities, including prisons and Pre-Trial Wards; c) Take effective steps to systematically and effectively monitor all places of detention; and d) Monitor and document incidents of inter-prisoner violence with a view to revealing root causes and designing appropriate prevention strategies, and provide the Committee with data thereon, disaggregated by relevant indicators. Excessive use of force and ill-treatment 13. The Committee expresses its concern at the number of allegations of excessive use of force and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, and the low number of convictions in such cases. In addition, the Committee regrets the lack of statistical data on complaints, prosecutions and sentences in respect of excessive use of force and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials (arts. 4, 12 and 16). The State party should take effective measures to send a clear and unambiguous message to all levels of the police force hierarchy that torture, ill-treatment and excessive use of force are unacceptable, including through the enforcement of the 2004 Code of Ethics for Lithuanian Police Officials, and ensure that law enforcement officials only use force when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duties. Referring to article 4, paragraph 2, of the Convention, the Committee underlines that the State party should apply sanctions that are proportional with the offences, and the State party is encouraged to initiate the collection of statistics on disciplinary penalties imposed. Prompt, thorough and impartial investigations 14. The Committee regrets the lack of information on the system in place to review individual complaints about police misconduct and it is concerned at the number of complaints of use of force and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, the limited number of investigations carried out by the State party in such cases, and the very limited number of convictions in those cases which are investigated (arts. 12 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State party should: (a) Strengthen its measures to ensure prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment committed by law enforcement officials. In particular, such investigations should not be undertaken by or under the authority of the police, but by an independent body. In connection with prima facie cases of torture and ill-treatment, the alleged suspect should as a rule be