45 centimeters, where no light or ventilation exists, and where the prisoner can only be standing or crouched down, “are torture instruments.”155 ii) Sanitary facilities and hygiene 95. The State has acknowledged that the Detention Center of Catia did not comply with the minimum standards required to mantain the good health of inmates. In this regard, the testimony of the Advisor of the Committee of Internal Policy of the House of Deputies156 is really revealing: [We found] some horrible barracks standing at the lower part. There were some men that lived there amidst putrid water that was running down from other floors. Refuse amid putrid water covered half leg. There was a locked room, but with a hole on its lower right corner. Through this hole, prisoners received their food, provided it is possible to call it "food." They took the food mixed with excrements. We knocked the door and heard some voices. They did not know how many persons were there. We started to dismantle the door once the welded joints had been removed, but it was not possible to open the door yet since the thick layer of excrements was even harder than the welded joints. Monsters came out of such place: the forgotten maximum-security inmates. 96. This statement is consistent with the testimony given by Arturo Peraza, at the public hearing conducted in the instant case (supra para. 59(o)). 97. This Court deems that the poor physical and sanitary conditions existing in detention centers, as well as the lack of adequate lightning and ventilation, are per se violations to Article 5 of the American Convention, depending on their intensity, length of detention and personal features of the inmate, since they can cause hardship that exceed the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention, and because they involve humiliation and a feeling of inferiority. 98. In this sense, the European Court held that the fact that a person had been forced to live, sleep and use sanitary facilities together with a great number of inmates was, per se, sufficient to be considered a degrading treatment.157 99. In the instant case, certain inmates of the Detention Center of Catia not only had to defecate in the presence of their mates, but they also had to live amid excrements and even eat their food under such humiliating conditions. The Court considers that said detention conditions are absolutely unacceptable, they involve disdain for human dignity; cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; high risk for health and life and a clear violation of Articles 5(1) and 5(2) of the American Convention. 155 Cf. Committee against Torture´s Report on Turkey, United Nations, 48th Session Term, (A/48/44/Add.1), 1994, para. 52. 156 Statements made by Tahís Peñalver, Advisor of the Commission on Domestic Policy of Deputies, and member of the Trojan Horse project carried out by the company Topten C.A., upon request of the Ministry of Justice to Newpaper “El Nacional, "Las mafias carcelarias chocan desde despacho de MinJusticia", March 25, 1996. Petition of the Commission (record on the merits and contingent reparations and indemnities, Volume I, page 17). 157 Cf. ECHR, Case of Khudoyorov v. Russia. Judgment of 8 November 2005, Application No. 6847/02, para. 107; ECHR, Case of Karalevicius v Lithuania. supra note 149, para. 39; ECHR, Case of I.I v Bulgaria. supra note 142, para. 73.