A/HRC/4/3 page 10 assigned one of its representatives to attend the entire session, reported on the session in an exhaustive communication. Judgements were handed down in more than 80 criminal cases, 12 of which - for the first time - were cases of kidnapping in which 32 people were implicated. Nine of the kidnapping cases led to the conviction of gang members and certain police officers. Several courts, such as those in Grande Rivière du Nord and Les Cayes, have followed this example, which can only be commended. 2. Shortcomings in the prison system (a) Recurrence of, and increase in, cases of extended detention 18. It should be recalled that, in its June 2006 report, the Human Rights Section noted that only 32 of the 151 prisoners (21 per cent) in the Saint Marc prison had been convicted. An even more sobering finding was made during a visit to the Pétion-Ville Women’s Prison: 165 (99.39 per cent) of the 166 prisoners were being held in pretrial detention; 121 of those prisoners had been detained for an extended period of time (longer than the three-month time limit accorded to the investigating judge): 103 had been detained since 2005 and 19 since 2004. 19. An important measure to address the recurrent problem of extended detention is under consideration. The measure would provide for the establishment of a “detention commission” attached to each court; detention commissions would be entrusted with compiling and updating a list of cases of persons being held in pretrial detention where there is obviously an abnormal delay, so that the most pressing cases, or those involving the most flagrant violations of the law, can be dealt with as a matter of priority. According to the Minister of Justice, who approved it, the text of the circular is ready and the funds necessary for launching the operation have been found (there are at least sufficient funds to set up a pilot detention commission in Port-au-Prince). (b) Treatment of detainees 20. In spite of the efforts to rehabilitate the prisons as soon as the Transitional Government was established, serious shortcomings, including budgetary constraints, remain: − Overcrowding in prisons: as the chief judge of the courts has said that the situation in Saint Marc is becoming unbearable, with 240 prisoners for some 100 places; − The dilapidated state of buildings, a large number of which, it should be recalled, were wrecked in the weeks following the departure of Jean-Bertrand Aristide; this compounds the disastrous consequences of overcrowding; − Improved sanitation, which is essential, since good quality drinking water is increasingly scarce and there is a chronic shortage of custodial supplies in certain institutions; − A significant number of prisoner deaths owing to the absence or insufficiency of medical care; for example, in the Jacmel prison, after a prisoner died from a serious case of anaemia contracted during detention, the Human Rights Section had to intervene to obtain the release of another prisoner who had gone blind.