6
the partial takeover order of December, 2008, are not suitable for human
permanence and, therefore, they should not house inmates;
iii)
the construction of the Ariquemes Penitentiary shall not reduce the
population of Urso Branco, as it shall only receive the population of the internal
region of the state of Rondônia. As to the construction of other detention
centers, they pointed out that the State failed to submit specific data on these
projects, such as the term set forth for their operation startup;
iv)
during the visit of August, 2009, the representatives could verify that
the detainees had only one physician who attended twice a week; two dentists
who exchanged shifts and only in the morning, one nurse and a nursing
technician who worked on a daily basis. On the other hand, several problems
have continued, such as the lack of access to water, inadequate feeding,
precariousness of personal hygiene items and mattresses and lack of workrelated and educational activities. Of the new yards mentioned by the State,
only one was fit to be used. Furthermore, even though the construction of said
yards has been completed, the frequency of exposure to sunlight shall continue
to be limited due to the low number of security agents. As to visits, these take
place regularly, from Friday to Sunday. Legal advise is provided by two interns
and two legal advisors, but there is no counselor working at the prison;
v)
a report of May, 2009 issued by the Procuraduría General de la
República [State Attorney General] section in Rondônia regarding the situation
of Urso Branco, among other aspects stated that: a) the structural problem of
the penitentiary system remains unsolved; b) the steps taken by the State
government after the request of federal takeover had no practical effects; and
c) the decrease of the prison population at the Urso Branco Prison is
transferring the overcrowding problem to other penitentiaries in Rondônia; and
vi)
on September 22, 2009, the Fiscalía de Ejecución Penal [Penal
Enforcement Public Prosecutor’s Office] forwarded an official note to the
government of the state of Rondônia denouncing the precariousness of the
present situation at the Penitentiary.
9.
That with respect to the reports of the State and the observations of the
representatives, the Commission, among other considerations, emphasized that:
i)
it assesses positively the overcrowding reduction at the Urso Branco
Prison as a consequence of the judicial orders and other actions of the domestic
legal system, such as the joint collective activity (in Portuguese, “mutirão”) to
review the judicial situation of the detainees. Despite the above mentioned
reduction, the Penitentiary “continues to have a high degree of overcrowding”,
which constitutes a latent risk factor in violence situations. On the other hand,
the State process of investment in the penitentiary infrastructure in order to
decrease overcrowding is still in its first stages and the situation at the prison
calls for urgent measures;
ii)
the so called “celões” (large cells) continue to operate despite of the
judgment of December, 2008, which ordered their improvement and specifically
set forth that they should not be used until their reconstruction was completed.
The Commission stated that inmates must be immediately transferred to a place
in better conditions while the above mentioned cells are redeveloped;