5
5.
The Tribunal has already established on prior occasions that in the context of
provisional measures, it does not fall to the Court to consider the merits of any argument
that is not strictly related to extreme gravity, urgency and the need to avoid irreparable
damages to the beneficiaries. Any other matter can be brought before the Court in an
adversarial case or in requests for advisory opinions.11
6.
The representatives have submitted a variety of information on the legislative
measures adopted with regard generally to individuals deprived of liberty in the Province of
Mendoza. Regarding this, they expressed their concern over legislation that they consider
to be "repressive or in violation of human rights," indicating that Law No. 7.929 on prisoner
releases restricts the right to freedom during criminal proceeding, which according to them
brings with it a "considerable increase in the prison population." They also indicated that
the program of the Ministry of the Government for the chemical castration of sex offenders
established both medical and therapeutic treatment through Decree No. 308 of March 3,
2010, a decree intended to prevent parliamentary debate on it. Also, even when the
Tribunal decided not to broaden the provisional measures to cover Penitentiary Complex III
“Almafuerte” in Cacheuta (supra Having Seen 7), the representatives continued to submit
information on it.
7.
For its part, the State made detailed reference to the manner in which the legal
defense of the inmates was carried out in administrative disciplinary proceedings in the
penitentiaries via a team of public defenders staffed by officials operatively and functionally
answering to the Human Rights Directorate, under the Subsecretariat of Justice and Human
Rights Those defenders took charge of reporting to the Human Rights Directorate of the
Province on any problems taking place in any penitentiary unit, along with attending to the
complaints brought by the inmates before that directorate via petitions prepared in writing
or through their relatives. It also indicated that recently, an Office of the Attorney General
Law was passed providing for the creation of ombudsman's offices for sentence execution.
Regarding this, the Commission held, inter alia, that "justice is being neglected" as the
judicial administrative penitentiary sentence execution proceedings are slow; it indicated
that there are only two sentence execution judges and that the slowness of the
proceedings prevent the application of the differentiated regimen while the inmates of the
Gustavo André prison facility, in Lavalle, did not receive prompt attention to their requests
for temporary leave and other benefits.
8.
Elsewhere, the State indicated that in the San Felipe prison, 325 inmates are “being
educated" and 350 work; and in the Boulogne Sur Mer prison, 325 inmates are studying
and 351 participate in labor activities. In the André complex, in Lavalle, they have satellite
classrooms with 75 lecture hours to implement various courses. Although the
representatives did not make specific reference to this point, the Commission indicated that
"one of the frequent causes of violence among the prisoners continues to be the lack of
activities to occupy them during recreational hours." The Commission also observed during
its in loco visit carried out in 2009 that there is "a high percentage of inmates who do not
have access to any kind of labor, educational, or recreational activity, nor access to
telephones to communicate with the outside world" and, with regard to the inmates in the
11
Cf. Case of James et al. Provisional Measures regarding Trinidad and Tobago. Order of the Inter-American
Court of August 29, 1998, Considering six; Matter of Eloisa Barrios et al. Provisional Measures regarding
Venezuela. Order of the Court of February 4, 2010, Considering 3, and Matter of Belfort Istúriz et al. Request for
Provisional Measures presented by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with regard to Venezuela.
Order of the Court of April 15, 2010, Considering 9.