The CPT was founded on the basis of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1987), which came into force in February 1989. It allows the CPT to visit all "places of detention" of the member states of the Council of Europe. Places of detention, as defined by the convention, are all places in which people are held without their consent. In the first place, this covers police cells, jails, prisons and closed psychiatric institutions, but also immigration detention centres, old peoples homes and the like. The visits are carried out by small teams of CPT members, who usually call in additional experts. After each visit, a report about the findings and recommendations is drawn up and sent to the respective government. The findings deal not so much with individual cases of torture but with the identification of situations at risk that may lead to torture. The CPT reports are confidential and are published only if the government so requests. But political pressure on the governments is strong to make the report public. Only in the rare case in which governments refuse to publish and the CPT has clear evidence of a practice of torture, the CPT may make a unilateral "public statement".