3.44 The Commission believes that its efforts, together with those of others who consider it essential to strive for police reform, are beginning to have effect. The Commission has, in this spirit, also offered its fullest assistance to the Apex Court in the consideration of this matter, which is of utmost importance to the promotiqn and protection of human rights in the country. (D) SYSTEMIC*REFORM: PRISONS AND OTHER CENTRES OF DETENTION 3.45 Section 12(c) of the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 entrusts to the Commission the responsibility "to visit, under intimation to the State Government, any jail or any other institution under the control of the State Government, where persons are detained or lodged for purposes of treatment, reformation or protectidn, to study the living conditions of the inmates and make recommendationsthereon." In the course of the years, the Commission has sought to deepen its knowledge of the conditions in all of such institutions and 1996-97 saw the Commission intensify its efforts to improve these conditions through basic reforms. 3.46 As in the past, Members of the Commission continued to visit jails, lock-ups and other centres of detention in different parts of the country. Officers of the Commission were, in addition, especially asked to study the conditions of jails in 8ihar (Sarai Kale, Bhagalpur), Punjab (Patiala) and Uttar Pradesh (Agra, Basti, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar). The findings followed a now familiar and depressing pattern: overcrowding, lack of sanitation, mistreatment and mismanagement. The Commission has, in earlier reports, catalogued such short-comings at length. Sadly, they still prevail. ~ f f i c e r sof the Commission learnt of the physical torture of prisoners by the jail staff in Basti, inadequate stocks of medicine for the treatment of prisoners, and demands for money from those who come to visit them. The Inspector General of Prisons, Uttar Pradesh, was summoned by the Commission to New Delhi and instructed to put matted right. In Meerut jail, the investigators of the Commission found rampant corruption. Upon the intervention of the Commission, remedial steps, including disciplinary and other action has been initiated against the offending staff. In Bikaner jail, it transpired that prisoners were compelled to pay bribes to be able to apply for parole; student prisoners, likewise, had to pay bribes in order to be able to appear for examinations. 3.47 The pervasive prevalence of such conditions in the prisons of this country will take many years of determined effort to remedy, related as they are to generations of neglect, the shortage of resources and a frame of mind that itself needs drastic altering through re-education, training and better conditions of work. In the Commission's view,