6 conditions to be ceased.” According to the statements made in such writ of habeas corpus filed “[Molina-Ponce] is subject to extended confinement periods, and sanctions or punishments are applied to him without serving notice to his defense attorney; he has to endure inhuman cruel and degrading treatment, he is not assisted with any labor therapy and needs urgent psychological treatment. He does not have any access to a free communication with the outside world and the authorities.” 7. That in the objections to such petition to broaden the provisional measures, the State pointed out that “the said petition was filed by the representatives of the petitioners and not by the Commission”, and it further pointed out that it considered that “any request to broaden the scope of the provisional measures, for facts other than those occurring in the penitentiaries stated in the Order of November 22, 2004, should be filed by the Commission” (supra Having Seen Clause Nº 14.) 8. That the Inter-American Commission considered that, “in view of the information sent by the representatives of the beneficiaries; and considering the court order issued by the Criminal Sentence Execution Judge of the Province of Mendoza regarding the writ of habeas corpus filed with respect to the inmate Carlos Molina-Ponce, wherein certain facts affecting the personal integrity of the inmates at the “Almafuerte” penitentiary are proved; and further taking into account the information published by the newspapers in Mendoza, regarding the invasive physical searches which are conducted on the inmates referred to the “Almafuerte” penitentiary in a so called “rubber room” within the penitentiary center, there exists a serious risk of causing irreparable damage to the personal integrity; and therefore, the request for provisional measures is found to be appropriate.” The Commission requested that the measures to be ordered include: “the protection to the right to life and humane treatment of the inmates incarcerated in the “Almafuerte” penitentiary; to protect inmates against cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment such as, inter alia, extended confinement periods and mistreatment; to suspend invasive physical searches on inmates and persons visiting the penitentiary; to investigate the facts (supra Having Seen Clause Nº 13.) The President shall proceed to determine if the material facts concur in order to direct the broadening of the said provisional measures. 9. That in the objections to the request to broaden the provisional measures, the State reported, inter alia, that back then, in the Complejo Penitenciario III (Almafuerte) (III Penitentiary Complex –Almafuerte-,) only Module V was in use, such unit was designed with a maximum security level, and at that time there were 42 inmates, all of them convicted, 17 of whom were recidivists, all of them of Argentine nationality and of age, and each lodged in an individual cell. The State further reported that the construction of the Complex had not finished yet and that it was contemplated to operate at full capacity by July, 2007; that it would have five modules, one maximum security and four medium security modules respectively, totaling 938 lodging places; the State further pointed out that recreational activities were carried on in three wings of the operating module and also that inmates had one hour of recreational activities in the indoors yard of the penitentiary; and further stated that a system of rules for the registration of persons and property was being drafted to be approved and applied to the whole penitentiary system. Meanwhile, the Complex Director issued Memorandum 001/07 on March, 26, 2007, to fix standards to be applied to the registration of visitors. Among such standards, it was stated that “staff making the searches shall be of the same gender as the visitor. If the visitor does not consent to the search, the visitor shall be allowed to contact the inmate through a phone cabin. It is strictly forbidden to apply degrading treatment and to carry on rectal or vaginal tact; [...] and as regards inmates, [... it is forbidden] to conduct searches by rectal tact, this

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents