10
mentioned action, ordering the suspension of said contracts. Even though 60 new
officers who passed the last competitive examination were appointed, 70 employees
who had been temporarily hired left the prison. Consequently, there was not an
increase in the real number of correctional officers, thus causing the deterioration of
the security conditions. The representatives noticed that there are 11 buildings in the
Penitentiary, which house an average of 60 inmates each. Therefore, taking into
account the 34 security agents in each shift, there would be a maximum of three
agents for the security of each building, and that would make it impossible to
guarantee, for instance, the safety of the detainees involved in commotions inside the
cells.
18.
That with respect to the new facts of violence occurred since the Court Order of
May 2, 2008, the representatives expressed that “the authorities inside the
Penitentiary frequently treat detainees with extreme violence: they are beaten up,
tortured and firearms are used, [, and] to maintain the normality disguise […] they
coerce the detainees, cover up acts of violence and exercise abuse of authority.”
Particularly, inter alia, the representatives stated that:
i)
the report of July 19, 2008, of the Juzgado de Ejecución Penal [Penal
Enforcement Court] (supra Considering clause No. 8.i) also stated that one of
the main problems at Urso Branco was the climate of violence. Said report
observed that in 2008 the physical aggressions against those deprived of liberty
persisted, allegedly exercised by other inmates or public officials, fact which
aggravates the climate of penitentiary instability;
ii)
in August, 2008, detainee W.R.X. suffered acts of torture on the part of
State agents;
iii)
in the visit to the Penitentiary of September 8, 2008 by the Juez de
Ejecución Penal [Judge of Penal Enforcement] and members of the Ministerio
Público [Office of the Public Prosecutor], 16 detainees were found with serious
signs of physical injuries in cell F6. The acts of physical and psychological torture
were allegedly perpetrated by the former General Director of the Penitentiary
and other four agents, who expected to obtain information on the ownership of a
cellular phone. According to the criminal complaint filed by the Ministerio Público
[Office of the Public Prosecutor], inmates were forced to kneel for hours on the
hot ground and to bite their nails until they bled, while they were aimed with
firearms and assaulted by the agents who kicked their bodies and feet. After the
facts were denounced, detainees allegedly received threats of physical suffering
and the placing of drugs in their cells, among other forms of retaliation, as well
as promises of advantages by the guards so that they changed the content of
their statements rendered in the context of the investigation. Additionally, the
former General Director, accused of the facts, was removed from his office at
the Urso Branco Prison, but he was transferred to exercise the position of
Manager of the Penitentiary System of Rondônia, having control over all the
penitentiary units of said state;
iv)
the judicial order of December, 2008 which ordered the partial takeover
of Urso Branco mentioned the risk of a new, dangerous and bloody rebellion at
the Penitentiary. The judgment pointed out that on October 6, 2008, there was a
new attempt of rebellion, during which there were more than 500 gunshots;