2
c)
due to several prison riots, alleged tortures, deaths and injuries
occurred during year 2005, La Pica inmates are subject to some risks that
have increased during the last months;
d)
the authorities have conducted several searches at La Pica
Confinement Center and seized several arm fires, bullet cartridges, bullets
and drugs;
e)
the inmates of La Pica Confinement Center are guarded by 16 guards
who work in two shifts of 24 hours each; therefore there is one guard for
every 63 inmates;
f)
the next of kin of some deceased inmates have accused members of
the National Guard and warders of the Confinement Centers as the alleged
authors of some of the deaths. Accusations for excessive use of force by the
authorities in charge of assuring the control of the Confinement Center are
permanent;
g)
the detention area of La Pica Confinement Center comprises 3
cellblocks, however, there are three circumstances that cause overcrowding:
a) destroyed cells that are completely uninhabitable; b) individual cells, which
have been appropriated by the leaders of the inmate groups that control the
premises, known as PRAT (or leaders within their own groups), who keep the
control by using arms; and c) inmates that cannot live in the general
detention area because their lives are at risk and consequently they are
forced to live in improvised places within the Center, in overcrowded
conditions;
h)
collective cells have been designed to lodge 7 persons, but at present
there are up to 15 inmates living in each of them. In said cells, inmates have
not beds or bed clothes; they sleep on the floor and some of them, on
foamrubber pieces;
i)
the Confinement Center has improvised extension premises near the
administrative area, where the women in custody are lodged in deplorable
living conditions. In the improvised additional premises, 22 to 24 women are
housed, distributed in three rooms that do not meet the conditions necessary
to lodge people. The women sleep on the floor or on cardboards and the only
bathroom they have for cleaning and sanitary purposes is very small, with
only one toilet, where the sewage system is almost permanently collapsed.
Consequently, odor is unbearable and running water mixes with sewage
waters. The bathroom is the main place where mice and rats can be found;
j)
people detained in the Confinement Center live under unacceptable
conditions that generate strained relations or aggravate circumstances such
as the following:
i)
in the cellblocks, there are no tables and inmates get the light
by connecting improvised cables as there are no lamps nor light bulbs
in the cells;
ii)
In each cellblock there is one bathroom that was originally built
for providing sanitary services and showers for all inmates. At present,
there are no toilets in the bathrooms and inmates have to move their
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents