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conditions that inmates have to endure, the overcrowding, and the manner in
which food services are provided. All the preceding conditions represent a risk
to their lives and physical integrity, and the same may lead to a violent
situation among inmates, and may also represent a risk for their health, since
they are exposed to get serious illnesses (there are over one hundred inmates
that suffer from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and pneumonia); thus, the
intervention of the Court is necessary to prevent serious and irreparable
damage;
b)
the measures adopted by the State have been insufficient. On July 14,
2006, the Court of Justice of the State of San Paulo, based on the information
submitted by the Secretaría de Administración Penitenciaria (“Secretariat of
Penitentiary Administration”,) endorsed the arguments of the Executive Power
of the State in the sense that it would be impossible to transfer inmates
immediately; it also stated that the schedule fixed by such Secretariat should
be followed, transferring 100 inmates per week. This scheme would cause a
delay of approximately 14 weeks in order to get the situation solved;
c)
the fact that persons under the custody of the State have to remain in
the Araraquara Penitentiary in the precarious conditions prevailing in such
Penitentiary illustrates the negligence by the State in the fulfillment of the
obligations to care that it assumed when depriving such persons of their
liberty, and
d)
overcrowding was mitigated with the assignment of additional wings in
the Centro de Detención Provisional (“Provisional Detention Center”) to be
used by inmates. However, the detention conditions of such inmates are
unacceptable and the priority in this case would be to adopt any measures
that may be necessary to prevent violence to arise among those persons who
have been deprived of their freedom, with the purpose of avoiding irreparable
harm caused to inmates. Likewise, the precarious detention and safety
conditions in the Araraquara Penitentiary should be immediately addressed
and relieved.
3.
The request filed by the Inter-American Commission in order for the Court to
request the State, on the basis of Article 63(2) of the American Convention, to adopt
a series of measures to protect the lives and the physical integrity of those persons
deprived of their liberty that are in the Araraquara Penitentiary.
4.
The Order issued by the President of the Court (hereinafter “the President”)
on July 28, 2006, upon referral to the Court Judges, by means of which, the Court
decided, inter alia, the following:
1.
To request the State to forthwith adopt any measures that may be necessary to protect
the lives and physical integrity of all persons deprived of their liberty that are detained in the
Penitenciaría “Dr. Sebastião Martins Silveira” (“Dr. Sebastião Martins Silveira Penitentiary”) in
Araraquara, State of San Paulo, Brazil; as well as to protect the lives and physical integrity of all
the persons that may be admitted to such penitentiary in the future as inmates or detainees. For
that purpose the State shall have to adopt any measures that may be necessary, strictly
respecting the human rights of those persons that have been deprived of their liberty, specially
the right to life and the right to humane treatment, and care, in order to prevent unduly violent
acts by its agents, so that they may regain control and reinstate order in the Araraquara
Penitentiary.
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