ARGENTINA:
'Cruel, Inhumane' Prison Conditions in Mendoza
Marcela Valente
Up to five prisoners sleep on the floor,
without mattresses, in four square metre cells. They defecate in plastic
bags and urinate in bottles. The corridors, littered with several days'
worth of garbage, are often flooded by sewage.
BUENOS AIRES, Nov 24 (IPS) - The "cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions" in three prisons in the
western Argentine province of Mendoza are described by the London-based
Amnesty International in a report released Wednesday in Buenos Aires.
"The medical staff is only called in after an inmate has died," states the
Amnesty report, the result of an exhaustive investigation that found that
the prisoners have no medical records and that medicines are scarce, doctors
do not enter the prison wings, and inmates with medical problems often
intentionally cut or otherwise hurt themselves to get medical attention.
In a conversation with IPS, activist Josefina Salomón said that many of
Amnesty's recommendations for bringing about rapid improvements in prison
conditions "require political will more than funds." Nonetheless, the
measures have not been adopted, or at least not with the urgency required.
Salomón admitted that in a country with serious public security problems and
steadily rising crime rates like Argentina, it is difficult to sensitise
society about the severity of the mistreatment of prisoners, even though it
is a violation of the national and provincial laws and constitutions.
But she warned that "Prisons like the ones in Mendoza only make the problem
worse. Inmates, most of whom have not yet even been tried and sentenced,
come out worse than when they went in."
According to the Argentine constitution, prisons must be "clean, healthy and
safe," and are not aimed at "castigation" but at rehabilitation. The
constitution of the province of Mendoza also states that jails are built
"for security, not to mortify the inmates."
Mendoza is not the only province where prisoners are held in appalling
conditions. In penitentiary facilities in the province of Buenos Aires,
where most of the country's inmates are concentrated, riots and other forms
of violence that often lead to deaths are becoming more and more routine.
Amnesty expressed concern that only two of 40 violent deaths of inmates in
the province of Buenos Aires since 2000 have been investigated.
It also reported that guards use hoods when beating prisoners in the
searches that are regularly carried out to maintain discipline. To protest
the mistreatment and severe conditions, 14 inmates between the ages of 18
and 21 sewed their mouths shut for several days earlier this year.
Citing testimony by human rights lawyers in Mendoza, the Amnesty report says
that a number of the young officers involved in torturing political
prisoners in the province during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship now
hold high-level posts in the Mendoza prison system.
Amnesty also interviewed the families of prisoners. A father whose
20-year-old son was arrested at the age of 16 for robbery - and is still
awaiting sentencing - told the human rights group that the mistreatment of
the inmates and their families by the guards is constant. "We're the ones in
charge here, the judges can keep their mouths shut," was the response the
father said he got when he complained about how his son was treated.
The father said the guards spit in his son's food, and that his clothing was
stolen and the food his family brings him was thrown into the courtyard "to
be eaten by the pigeons." When he protested, he was warned that he might get
his son back "in a box."
The Amnesty mission that drew up the report visited the prisons in May and
met with provincial authorities, human rights attorneys and the families of
prisoners. It also gathered information from inspections carried out by the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in the same prisons in
2004.
On that occasion, IACHR commissioner Florentín Meléndez said that in "La
Penitenciaria", the name of the main prison in Mendoza, it was impossible to
distinguish any bathrooms, and that "the sewage system is collapsed. The
state of abandonment is absolute. The place is not even fit for animals."
Built in the early 20th century, La Penitenciaria was designed to hold 600
prisoners. But the rundown installations now house 1,600 inmates, with
sentenced and unsentenced prisoners mixed in together, as well as adults and
young adults - between the ages of 18 and 21 - despite laws stipulating that
the prison population must be classified and separated according to
sentencing status and age.
The IACHR referred the case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and
in 2004, the Court ordered the Mendoza provincial government to immediately
adopt provisional measures to "protect the lives and personal integrity of
inmates" and to investigate the mistreatment and violent deaths.
The demand was repeated in June, but according to Amnesty there have been no
substantial improvements.
The human rights organisation did acknowledge, however, that the Mendoza
provincial government plans to build new prisons and has somewhat eased the
overcrowding with several transfers of prisoners. In addition, it recognised
that the provincial government had taken a cooperative attitude towards the
Amnesty delegation.
Nevertheless, there have been no improvements in the sanitary conditions, or
in the availability of potable water. Nor are there sufficient mattresses,
and the few existing ones are of terrible quality, said an IACHR delegate
sent to Mendoza in October. He also reported that prisoners continue to be
shut in their cells for excessively long periods, and that inmates are not
yet classified and separated according to status or age.
The October visit by the IACHR found that the health of inmates was still
"deplorable" and that doctors did not visit the prisoners, nor were there
any nurses, dentists, psychiatrists or psychologists to attend to the
prisoners or the guards, who have fewer hours off than they are supposed to.
The Amnesty report states that the Mendoza government opened a second legal
office this year with the aim of expediting the dispensation of justice,
although the office has been empty since March.
Amnesty urged the provincial authorities to live up to the recommendations
of the IACHR and Inter-American Court, and underlined the urgent need for
the government to draw up a penitentiary policy with the participation of
civil society and to guarantee the necessary budget funds for putting it
into practice as soon as possible.
(END/2005)
