150. In reply, the representative of the State party pointed out that the civic militia and the security services had been disbanded and that the composition of the police force had changed substantially. The previous force had been dissolved and the new force was now headed by civilians and subject to monitoring by a central body. In cases where it had been established that officials had been neglectful in performing their functions, they had been dismissed. In some cases, criminal proceedings had been instituted and trials were pending. In 1990, 414 complaints of ill-treatment had been filed by persons remanded in custody, 11 of which later proved to be well founded. Penalties had been applied against 21 Prisons Service officers, 6 of whom had lost their jobs. Also in 1990, over 8,000 complaints had been filed against police officers, and disciplinary proceedings had been instituted in 4,000 cases. Some 3,200 officials had already been sentenced and the statistical services of the Ministry of Justice regularly published data on that question. In 1991, the committee responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Helsinki agreements had transmitted to the Polish authorities a list of 93 cases of ill-treatment of detainees by police. An inquiry had shown that there had in fact been 590 cases of that nature; 33 of the cases resulted in charges. In the eight months since March 1991, 17 police or prison officials had been charged for cases of that kind. 151. Among the measures adopted to end the ill-treatment of persons remanded in custody had been the replacement, since 1990, of over 7,000 employees of the Prisons Service. Additionally, 176 high-ranking officials of the Service had been removed from office and another 410 had been reassigned elsewhere. As a result, only 35 per cent of the present officials had been in their posts for over five years. In 1990, professional training courses had been organized for 2,000 prison staff and a further 1,400 staff members had followed such courses in the first half of 1991. In addition, 3,900 persons had taken specialized courses, indicating the importance that the Minister of Justice attached to such training. The Prisons Service in Poland was headed by a scientist trained in social reintegration and rehabilitation. Broad international contacts with prison officials from other European countries were being developed in an effort to ensure that prison standards in Poland were brought into line with international norms. 152. Standards relating to the amount of space for each detainee in a cell were in keeping with international norms. Until 1990, persons could be placed in detention centres belonging to the civic militia, with disastrous consequences for their rights and living conditions. At present, 56,000 persons were in prisons or penitentiary establishments in Poland, whereas only one or two years previously that figure had been over 100,000. Detention conditions had been improved inasmuch as the number of detainees had decreased and pretrial detention was being applied less and less. In the future, no prisoners could be remanded in police cells for longer than 48 hours, after which they had to be kept in prisons under the control of the Minister of Justice. 153. The professional qualifications of doctors working in prisons were often not very good. Many complaints of detainees had proven to be well founded and, as a result, 40 per cent of the senior staff of the Prisons Service had been replaced. Medical chambers had been established to supervise the practice of doctors working in prisons. The number of complaints concerning prison medical services had declined sharply from 860 in 1990 to 299 as at 18 October 1991. -34-