- 34 53. The custody records consulted by the CPT’s delegation in the different police stations visited in the course of the 2015 visit were often poorly kept, with numerous errors, corrections or omissions (e.g. missing entries for arrival or times of transfer or release, etc.). The CPT was informed of the Greek authorities’ plans to introduce electronic records of detained persons in police custody, and would like to be informed of the timeline for their introduction. In the meantime, the Committee recommends that the Greek authorities take effective steps to ensure that custody registers are properly maintained, accurately record the times of actual apprehension, admission, placement in a cell, release or transfer, and reflect all other aspects of custody (precise location where a detained person is being held; visits by a lawyer, relative, or consular officer; taking out of cell for questioning; any incidents related to a detained person, etc.). 54. When the delegation visited the holding cells on the 11th and 12th floors of the GADA (see paragraph 57), it was told that neither of the detention facilities were used and that, consequently, neither department possessed custody records. It was also informed that custody records would only contain the data concerning persons who had physically been placed in the central detention area on the seventh floor of the building; on the contrary, no record was kept of criminal suspects who were brought to one of the departments within the GADA for interview (but not placed in a cell). The only information on the time that a person spent under the authority of investigators from the Security Departments would be recorded in the person’s criminal file that was exclusively in the hands of the relevant prosecutor. The placement of a detained person in a specific cell should always be clearly recorded even if the person concerned has already been registered as a detained person elsewhere in the same police establishment. In addition to facilitating control over the observance of the legal provisions concerning police custody, such a recording can protect police officers by countering false allegations made against them. The CPT recommends that the Greek authorities take the necessary measures to ensure that, whenever a person is present in a police establishment for investigative purposes (including for interviews), their presence is always duly recorded. It goes without saying that the placement of any person in a cell should always be duly recorded. 5. Conditions of detention 55. In the past, the CPT has strongly criticised the conditions of detention observed in many police stations, and particularly in the Attica region. It has repeatedly stressed that the detention facilities in most of the police stations visited were totally unsuitable for holding detained persons for periods of longer than 24 hours. The situation was exacerbated as police stations were used to detain irregular migrants and persons on remand or even sentenced prisoners for months on end, resulting in conditions that could easily be considered as amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment.