23 93. During the Commission’s visit to Argentina between December 13 and 17, 2004, the Commission was able to corroborate how serious the security situation is for the inmates in the Mendoza prisons and the deplorable detention conditions that they endure. The following were among the Commission’s principal findings: The deplorable security conditions at the Mendoza Provincial Penitentiary breed high rates of inmate violence. During the meeting that preceded the Commission’s visit to the Penitentiary’s facilities, the new director of the establishment acknowledged that the security system was deficient; Because of the poorly controlled security and the overcrowding at both establishments, activities as basic as food distribution or cell assignments cause fights among inmates. According to what the inmates themselves told the Commission, the guards themselves induce the fighting by switching violent inmates from one cellblock to another. The overcrowding problem is serious at both prisons visited; this creates a tense climate as the inmates have to fight for everything, from a place to sleep to a little water to drink. The cells, aisles and hallways have no artificial lighting and very little natural light gets in. There is no ventilation system, so that the smell of food, excrement and urine is constantly in the air. The Commission observed that some of the passageways were partially flooded with wastewater. The hygienic conditions are deplorable, since the prison officials themselves pay no heed to the question of cleanliness and do not provide the inmates with the materials they need to clean. Many inmates have skin diseases or chronic infections because of the environment in which they live. The inmates eat their food and see to their physiological needs in the cell itself. They are locked in their cells for some 16 hours a day, with eight hours of “recreation time” during which they are required to leave their cells; if they are being punished, they are forced to remain in their cells. The toilet facilities at the Provincial Penitentiary do not work. If not completely destroyed and flooded, there is no water to empty them. The inmates use plastic bags to defecate, which accumulate on the floor of the bathroom; they use plastic bottles as urinals and then empty them through windows onto the prison grounds or in the spaces beneath the staircases to the upper floors of the cellblocks, in order to be able to 64 use the bottles again. 94. In the report that the Commission presented to the Court on November 16, 2009, concerning the visit that the Inter-American Commission’s Rapporteur for the Rights of Persons Deprived of Their Liberty made in April of that year to the Mendoza Provincial Penitentiary, the IACHR concluded that the insecurity and violence that prompted the request seeking provisional measures persist, so that the protection has to be kept in place. The Commission specifically warned that the seriousness of the situation -a fact that federal authorities and a number of provincial authorities acknowledged- is reflected in the numerous incidents that have occurred in the five years that the provisional measures have been in 65 effect. E. The death of Ricardo David Videla Fernández 64 First special report filed with the Inter-American Court in the context of the provisional measures granted on behalf of the inmates in the Mendoza prisons. April 6, 2005. 65 Second special report filed with the Inter-American Court in the context of the provisional measures granted on behalf of the inmates in the Mendoza prisons. November 16, 2009.